Lily & James at Hogwarts
by Bones Girl1997
Summary: Lily and James's lives at Hogwarts through the seven years of their schooling, meeting their friends and dealing with how their lives and relationships change.
1. Chapter 1

_**I do not own any of these characters or claim to own them nor do I claim the ideas of J.K. Rowling. All characters and magical processes are copyrighted and belong to J.K. Rowling I know that this first chapter is very similar to that which was in the book and that is because I wanted to use the way J.K. Rowling introduced the characters and sort of fill in the blanks. Seriously, no copyright intended, at all. Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling. EVERYTHING.**_

**Chapter One **

**Witch? **

Severus Snape had known what he'd be and where he would go to school since he was five. It wasn't difficult for him to see that the girl from the park, the one Evans girl was the same, only totally oblivious. That her elder sister had convinced her that what she could do was more of a curse than a blessing.

Severus saw fit to tell her about it one day, to tell her where she would be going and why she could do the things that she could do. Why it hadn't happened to her sister and what would happen.

He sat in the bushes, in his ludicrously warm winter coat in the middle of summer because it was his only coat.

"Why are you staring at us?" The muggle asked him.

"I'm not." He said.

"Yes you are." The elder one argued.

"Then why are you standing in the bushes?"

"Shade," Severus managed to choke out.

"You could try inside, if you really need that much shade." She said scoldingly.

"I saw you do that." He said to Lily who froze and Petunia who looked at him.

"You didn't see anything." Petunia said.

Lily was about to say something but she paused, then she began to speak again, "Why aren't you scared?"

"Because I can do it too." Severus said smiling. "You're a witch."

"That's not very nice to say." Lily said her bottom lip wobbling.

"No, no," he said still smiling, "You see, my mum, she's a witch and I'm a wizard."

"Really?" Lily asked.

Petunia shook her head, "No not really, he's just winding you up, making fun of you because you're a freak." She said, "I know who he is, he's that Snape boy who lives down Spinner's End, his parents are always fighting."

Severus turned red, "Leave my family out of this." He said. "What's your name?" He asked Lily and only Lily.

"I'm Lily Evans, this is my sister, Petunia."

"I'm Severus."

Petunia looked indignant, "I can't believe you told him our names." She murmured loud enough for him to hear.

"What do you mean, I'm a witch?" Lily asked taking a hesitant step forward.

"I mean, we'll be going to the same school, Hogwarts. It's the school for Witchcraft and Wizardry." He said.

"We're going home," Petunia said, dragging her sister by the arm back towards their house.

Lily mouthed, "Tell me tomorrow." At him and his face lit up as he watched her go.

Lily Evans.

**Read & Review please :)**

**I made some changes to this chapter, shortened it, because it was too close to J.K. Rowling's original. **

**I did it in about ten minutes so, it's a lot shorter, but it's my interpretation of how they met. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two **

**Platform 9 and ¾ **

Severus was right Lily got her letter and a strangely dressed woman came to their house and explained to her parents.

Severus Snape stood on the platform next to his sour looking mother who resembled him greatly; his eyes fixed on a family of four a little way away. One red-headed girl stood pleading with her sister.

"…I'm sorry Tuney, I'm sorry! Listen –" she caught her sister's hand and held it tightly even as Petunia tried to pull it away. "Maybe once I'm there – no listen, Tuney! Maybe once I'm there, I'll be able to go to Professor Dumbledore and persuade him to change his mind!"

"I don't – want – to – go!" Said Petunia as she wrenched her hand from her sister. "You think I want to go to some stupid castle and learn to be a – a"

Her eyes swept the platform over the strange pets, cats (well alright) but owls. The trunks and scarlet steam engine and students greeting each other from previous years after their long summer partings.

" – you think I want to be a – a freak?"

Lily's eyes filled with tears.

"I'm not a freak that's a horrible thing to say." She said tears streaming down her face.

"That's where you're going," she said, "A special school for freaks. You and that Snape boy … weirdos, that's what you two are. It's good you're being separated from normal people. It's for our safety." She said nastily.

Lily glanced at her mum and dad who looked as if they thoroughly enjoyed the scene.

"You didn't think it was such a freak school when you wrote to the headmaster and begged him to take you." She snapped.

Petunia turned a deep shade of red.

"Beg? I didn't beg?"

"I saw his reply. It was very kind." She commented.

"You shouldn't have read –" whispered Petunia, "That was my private – how could you –"

Lily gave herself away by glancing at Snape out of the corner of her eye. Petunia gasped.

"That boy found it! You and that boy have been sneaking in my room!" She said as though it were the ultimate mark of betrayal.

Lily spoke defensively, "No – not sneaking –" she tried to justify it. "Severus saw the envelope, and he couldn't believe a muggle could have contacted Hogwarts, that's all!" He says there must be wizards working undercover in the postal service who take care of –"

Petunia cut her off, "Apparently wizards poke their noses in everywhere!" she said. "Freak!" she said before skipping of to her parents.

Tears slid down Lily's face as she got onto the train. She found an empty compartment and sat in a corner. A crowd of rowdy boys joined her having hardly noticed her presence. She had her face pressed against the window.

The compartment door slid open Lily turned her head far enough to see who it was and then placed her face back on the pane of glass.

"I don't want to talk to you." She whispered.

"Why not?" he asked surprised.

"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."

"So what?" he wanted to know.

She threw him a look of dislike.

"So, she's my sister." She said as if the fact were obvious.

"She's only a," he stopped himself quickly. "But we're going!" he said unable to suppress his excitement. "This is it. We're off to Hogwarts."

She nodded mopping her tears on her sleeve, smiling in spite of herself.

"You'd better be in Slytherin," he said encouraged at the slight lift in her mood.

"Slytherin?" Said a black haired boy from the compartment. He looked as if he had been well cared for unlike Severus.

"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" He asked the boy sitting across from him. The boy looked up.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin." He said.

"Blimey," said the boy, "and I thought you seemed all right."

The boy grinned broadly.

"Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you headed if you've got the choice?" He asked.

The boy mimicked carrying a sword, "_Gryffindor, were dwell the brave heart_! Like my dad."

Severus sniggered.

"Got a problem with that?" The boy asked.

"No," Severus said though his sneer expressed otherwise. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy –"

"Where're you hoping to go seeing as you're neither." Interjected the other boy.

The first boy roared with laughter. Lily sat up looking from one boy to the other a serious look of dislike on her face.

"Come on Severus," she said, "Let's go find another compartment."

"Oooooo," The boys teased.

One boy tried to trip Severus as they left.

"See ya Snivellus," he yelled as the compartment door slammed shut.

Much to their surprise they did manage to find an empty compartment. They spent the rest of the journey talking excitedly. Severus wanted to be in Slytherin desperately and Lily wasn't so sure. She didn't know where she wanted to go, Severus had spoken a lot about Slytherin but neglected to talk about the other houses. Of course he'd mentioned them in passing there was Gryffindor like those two boys had spoken about and Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Apparently Slytherin was bad in some people's eyes but she had absolutely no idea whether it would be good or bad for her. She spent a lot of time thinking it over and kept an open mind to what might be at the school. Severus had said something about a hat but what could that possibly mean.

After having changed into their robes the train ground to a halt.

Lily was in a daze for most of the time that they sailed across the river in their little rowing boats and as they walked up the middle of the great hall she became rather self-conscious but felt slightly more at ease with Severus by her side.

She zoned out and was snapped out of it suddenly when Professor McGonagall shouted, "Evans, Lily."

Lily climbed up the steps and sat on the little three legged stool and McGonagall placed the hat on her head, it considered putting her in Hufflepuff but finally decided on, "Gryffindor!"

"Potter, James." Professor McGonagall read from her scroll. Lily was sitting watching as James and his arrogant smirk walked up to sit on the little stool. The hat was placed on his head and the hat called, "Gryffindor," without any hesitation or second thought.

She sat while the other boys from the train were sorted into Gryffindor much to her dismay and through a dozen other students when McGonagall finally called, "Snape, Severus."

It had barely touched his head when it shouted "Slytherin."

Lily felt sad as Snape walked to the other side of the hall, a tall blonde boy wearing a prefect badge patted him on the back as he took his seat beside him. Severus didn't look very happy in spite of the fact he was sorted where he wanted to be sorted. He had wanted Lily to be in the same house as him and he was obviously disappointed that she was not only, not a Slytherin, she was the opposing house. She was a Gryffindor. Practically the sworn enemy of Slytherins.

Lily ate and drank through dinner, longing to be sitting next to her friend the only familiar face in the whole massive school. He was the only one that she properly knew and it was the first time she'd ever been away from home before and she missed her family, even Petunia in spite of the way she had acted at the train station. Her dad and her mum and her bedroom and…everything, she'd miss her friends who thought she was jetting off to some special school because she was a genius. It wasn't a good thing, they must just think that she thought she was too good for them or something, at least that's how Lily thought they would see it.

She was just sitting with some of her fellow first years; they were talking and the boy across from her was looking at her, "So, Evans," he said and she looked up,

"Are you talking to me?" She asked. He nodded with that obnoxious grin on his face.

He ate another fork full of roast dinner from his plate. "Just wondered, which classes you were looking forward to?"

Lily looked puzzled, "I don't know what is there?" They looked bemused at her,

"What do you mean? You don't know what there is?" James said chuckling. Lily looked slightly put out. She looked at them, it was just that she didn't know that there was any difference between being born to a wizarding family or being born to a muggle family. She didn't know, she was naïve about it. She didn't know the prejudice she'd face because of her birth status. James obviously put two and two together, "You're muggle born then?" He wanted to know.

Lily nodded, "Yes." She didn't elaborate. Lily ate more of her dinner and when she was finished she pushed her cutlery into the middle of the plate and drank some more pumpkin juice from her goblet. She'd never had it before but she really liked it.

"Well, I wonder when dessert gets here; I'm just desperate for some trifle." Sirius said to them and Remus and Peter laughed. Sirius looked at them, "What?"

Remus shook his head, "Nothing, just that dinner only finished five seconds ago and you ate like a pig, I'm not even sure that any normal human being would have the capacity to eat anything on top of what you've already had." Lily nodded in agreement.

"He's right." She said and James shook his head, having eaten the same amount if not more of what Sirius had and shook his head,

James patted Sirius on the arm, "I totally agree, I'm still hungry, I have no idea what they're talking about." He said and Sirius grinned,

"Ah James, this is the start of a beautiful friendship." He said as the puddings arrived on the table and ironically the trifle was right in front of Sirius. A dangerous placement they realised as Sirius took a massive spoonful of it out and put it on his empty plate and they all watched him as he gasped at the variety of stuff on the table. Lily had some chocolate ice-cream which she found out tasted much better in the Wizarding world somehow. When she'd gotten her things from Diagon Alley her mum hadn't let her stop at Florean Fortescue because Petunia was feigning an illness and wanted them all to go home and since Lily did have all of the things she needed she couldn't exactly argue that she wanted ice-cream. It would make her sound like a bit of a spoilt brat.

When they were finished, Lily made eye contact across the hall with Severus who smiled faintly back before the blonde prefect pulled him back into a conversation with a confused and suspicious look on his face as he looked over Lily and then turned back to his little friends.

Lily started to speak to the girls who sat on her other side, they were called Mary Jones and Margaret Belle, they were really nice and the three of them spoke until Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster stood up behind the podium, it looked like an owl spreading its big golden wings. The kindly man had silvery hair and a long silver beard. He was wearing Prussian blue robes decorated with little silver stars. He spoke,

"To our new first year students, welcome, to our old students, welcome back. I am Professor Dumbledore, welcome to Hogwarts. I have a few start of term notices for you. As always the forbidden forest is out of bounds, hence the name, new students keep this in mind and our older students please remember this." He said, "Please welcome our new Professor of Astronomy, Professor Aurora Sinistra." He said, the women stood up everyone gave her a round of applause she smiled and she sat down again while Professor Dumbledore continued on with his speeches start of term notices, Lily listened very closely. She always followed the rules. James did not listen, nor did Sirius, Remus did and Peter did but the terrible two were talking closely about random wizarding things that if Lily overheard she would not understand in the slightest. Professor Dumbledore smiled through his half moon spectacles, "Everyone have a good term, now off to bed with you and get ready for your first day of school tomorrow. Prefects show first years to their common rooms. Good night." With a last smile before the benches scraped the flag stone floor and everyone left the hall in a flurry of activity.

The prefects that year were a red headed boy and a blonde girl. They walked them up the changing staircases, past the portraits of people fidgeting around in their golden gilt friends. Lily stared around in wonder as the portraits smiled and waved at all of the new first years. The Gryffindor's followed them to the portrait of the fat lady who smiled, "Password?"

The blonde girl said, "Thestral." The portrait swung open to reveal a warm room with a fireplace and big cushioned arm chairs and tables and chairs and stuff. They all climbed through and listened to the red headed boy talk, "Boys dormitories upstairs and down to the left, girls the same on your right." Then the prefects walked off, and then the first years went in the direction they were told. As they passed the doors they saw that their names were on the door written on a piece of parchment. Lily walked through the door; Margaret and Mary were the names of the girls she was sharing the room with. And sure enough they showed up behind her. It was an average height girl with brown hair and a tall slim girl with pale blonde hair.

Lily walked in through the door, there were three four poster beds inside with their trunks sitting at the foot of them and crimson curtains and bed covers. There were beside tables as well and Lily was amazed that all of her stuff was already there, it was so…weird to her. I mean wizards were used to that sort of stuff happening, it happened in their backgrounds, in how they grew up. Lily smiled, "I'm Lily Evans." She said.

The blonde girl smiled, "I'm Margaret Belle, but please call me Maggie." She said.

"I'm Mary Jones." The brown haired girl said lying down on top of the covers of her bed. Lily smiled,

"Nice to meet you." She said as she opened the lid of her trunk to find her pyjamas. They were white button up pyjamas. She slid off her shoes and socks and pulled the curtains around her bed as she pulled on her pyjamas. She brushed her hair back into a ponytail and opened her curtains to go brush her teeth and wash her face. Maggie and Mary were also changing into their pyjamas. Lily came back from the first year girl's bathroom which connected all of the girl's dormitories and climbed under the covers, hyped up for her first day of school she fell asleep with great difficulty. It was eleven o'clock before she could fall asleep with her mind musing. _I'm a witch_ she thought as she smiled because she felt like she'd found somewhere she belonged.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**First Year Part 1 **

James Potter sat in the Gryffindor common room with his new friend and roommate Sirius Black who had just received a howler from his mother concerning his house. The portrait that hung in Twelve Grimmauld Place of his ancestor Phineas Nigellus Black had told them having heard it from a pleasantly surprised headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

They were talking of Quidditch when a familiar girl walked past them hardly turning to look at them and walking out of the portrait hole, her red waist length hair flying behind her as she left.

"Morning Lily," he called after her but she was already gone.

Sirius stared after her, "She's that girl from the train yesterday, right?" He said trying to remember it from the sorting the previous night.

"Sirius, she sat with us for dinner yesterday when you were wolfing your food down." James said trying to jog his memory and recognition flashed on Sirius's face.

"Oh yeah," he said smiling, "Speaking of, I want some breakfast. Are you ready to go or are we waiting for Remus and Peter."

Just then a boy with light brown hair walked down the stairs from the boy's dormitories.

"Hey Remus," said Sirius.

Remus looked at them, "Hi, I thought you'd be at breakfast already, Peter will just be five minutes." They said just as the small boy climbed down the stairs in his robes with his hair messed up. "Are we going to breakfast or what?" The boys sighed exasperatedly and laughed.

Lily sat alongside Mary and across from Margaret in the great hall that morning waiting for classes to begin.

Her new subjects would be very different than those she'd been learning before summer from maths, English, history, French and geography too Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, History of Magic, Astronomy and broomstick flying lessons. Lily had a feeling that this school could be a little more interesting than maths.

Mary and Maggie where talking about what they had to look forward to in their Hogwarts career, "My brother told me that we'd be able to go to Hogsmeade in third year and learn apparition in sixth year and there's the Christmas ball that they have for fourth to seven years every Christmas. It's going to be so awesome having you guys as friends." Maggie said. "We also get to pick extra subjects that we want to do." She said as Professor McGonagall being the head of Gryffindor house was walking down the hall handing out timetables. McGonagall got to Lily,

"Miss Evans, here is your timetable," she said, "Miss Belle and Miss MacDonald." She said handing them their own tables and continuing on down the hall. Lily looked at hers, for her first lesson she had History of Magic with Professor Binns. The first of September in 1971 was a Wednesday and that meant a short first week which was a good thing in some ways. To Lily it wasn't so great, she liked school and she was sure she'd certainly like Hogwarts.

"So are your parents a wizard and witch?" Asked Maggie. Lily finished her piece of buttered toast and dusted of her fingers.

"Mine are." Maggie said.

"Half and half," Mary said, "My mum's a witch my dad's a muggle bit of a shock when he found out, but I think he's used to it now." She laughed.

"Time to go," Lily said excitedly; they had History of Magic first with Professor Binns.

"You seem a little over excited." Maggie commented.

"Well; I didn't know about magic until I met Severus." Lily said.

"Who's Severus?" Asked Mary curiously looking at Lily to make sure she was being totally serious.

"A friend, he saw me do magic once and told me all about everything but he got sorted into Slytherin so I haven't seen him since yesterday on the train." Lily said.

Maggie looked sceptical when she said he was in Slytherin. Lily could see, James, the boy from the train looking at her from the a little way down the table.

"At which point some boys decided to be exceedingly rude," she said pointedly and she saw the boy snap his head away.

They found the classroom with no problems and stood lined up outside with their fellow Gryffindor students. They walked up the stairs and along a maze of corridors to get to the classroom, they all walked into the class and sat down Lily sat down beside Maggie and Mary sat in front of them with another girl who seemed nice, Catrin Hanson. She had long brown hair. Lily would know because she was staring at the back of her head. Behind them sat Sirius and James. And behind them at the very back of the class were Peter and Remus. Professor Binns floated in through the classroom door and stood beside the blackboard where he wrote Professor Binns on it in a fancy scrawl which Lily found easy enough to read but others seemed to be having issues with it Lily found out by the confused and puzzled silence she heard from behind her. Lily began writing down the facts professor Binns was righting out on the board about Troll Wars, 1820.

James was sitting behind them thinking, _what in the world is that old codger going on about._ Sirius totally agreed, they were writing notes to each other on a piece of parchment. Lily loved Hogwarts she found she was quite good at taking notes. She seemed to be the only one taking notes in History of Magic while she could see that boy, James Potter and his little gang which consisted of himself, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin(who didn't seem to be that bad) and Peter Pettigrew passing notes to each other. She had a feeling when exams came around she'd have a lot of friends. After Transfiguration which was fine, a little bit stricter on talking, note passing and all other things of that nature, then there was double charms with Professor Marshall. They did the swish and flick hand motions and were told they'd move on to the incantation later in their next class. Then there was Herbology in which they spoke about flowers, nobody fell asleep at all, really. No sarcasm at all. Ha, ha. And finally at the end of the day there was Potions, Professor Horace Slughorn resembled a walrus with a sandy coloured moustache, he had a massive belly and was wearing a waistcoat beneath his dress robes and a pocket watch was attached to his pocket. He smiled as they walked in and boomed out the words, "Welcome to potions. I would ask you to stand at the front of your class with your things please so I can seat you." He said, there was a collective groan from the class and Professor Slughorn laughed,

"That's what they say every year." He said as if recollecting a fond memory.

Lily sighed as Professor Slughorn went along the line of Gryffindor students and Slytherin students. He had the good sense not to seat them with people of the opposite house, "Red headed girl over here with messy haired boy," he said pointing at James. "Across from them, tall blonde girl and you." He pointed at Maggie and Sirius. And the four of them all walked to the table together. Lily sat down and they watched as Slughorn seated the rest of the class. James smiled,

"This should be fun," he said running a hand through his hair and taking out his potions textbook and notebook, ink and quill. "Well, how are we today?" He asked. Lily looked sceptical,

"Fine." She said as though it was a question rather than an absolute answer. James laughed,

"Don't look so scared," Sirius said, "We're not all bad, James and I are just being friendly." He said as he looked at the boy from across the table.

Maggie rolled her eyes, "Yeah Lil, friendly, I'm sure that'll end well with how the two of them act." She said.

"Now," Professor Slughorn said sitting behind his desk at the front of his class and waving his wand, "Now the instructions are on the board, you may begin." He said eating a piece of crystallised pineapple from a box in front of him. Lily opened her text book to page one, and began chopping up her ingredients as indicated by the recipe inside the potion book. Lily read the title; it was a cure for boils. Dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, stewed horned slugs and porcupine quills. They were all prepared as followed, by Lily at least and were added in the right order, by Lily, however this was not the case with everyone as, Monica Richards added the porcupine quills before she took the cauldron of the fire, resulting in clouds of acid green smoke and some very loud hissing and then the cauldron melted and burned holes through her black shoes. She screamed and Professor Slughorn wadled over in a hurry to examine her for injuries and subsequently sent her to the infirmary for Madame Pomfrey to deal with the ugly red boils which had sprung up all over her feet. James and Sirius stifled their laughter until Monica had left the room and then they burst out laughing. Lily looked at them and then shook her head, James noticed,

"What?" He asked as Sirius and James's laughter subsided left with the look on Lily's face, "Come on, lighten up Evans, I'm not making fun of her, just laughing." Lily smiled sadly,

"Well, you're basically making fun of her; it's just that she isn't here." She said with a sigh and Sirius sighed,

"I guess some people just don't get what funny is." Sirius said. Lily huffed a bit at that before returning to her potion which was then finished brewing and looking at the clock, Professor Slughorn said,

"Please put a sample of potion in a glass vial, put your name on it and leave it on my desk. You are dismissed once your supplies are cleared away." He then sat back down behind his desk again and began eating pineapple again. Lily poured some of her potion into a glass vial, cleared her desk and shoved her things in her bag. She exit the classroom to go back to the common room where she was looking forward to a night of reading by the fire, eating whatever was in the dining hall that night and going to sleep early. She had every intention of doing those things. She left the dungeons and returned up the stairs, she walked up the many, many flights of stairs to the Gryffindor portrait hole where she repeated the password she'd been using ever since she arrived the previous day, she said, "Thestral." And the portrait swung open, Lily climbed through and ran up the stairs to the girl's dormitories. Lily pulled her hair back into a ponytail, grabbing her book; she kicked off her black shoes and sat with her hands wrapped around her knees as she began to read her book. Maggie came thundering in and collapsed on to her bed with a groan, "Sirius is so annoying." She said. Mary came soon after,

"Of course he is," she said, "he's friends with James." An explanation they could not argue with as the three of them sat in their room together. It was the start of friendships that were bound to last a very, very long time and Lily wasn't quite prepared for that to happen, she was glad that it was happening but she hadn't expected it. Thinking better of the use of her time Lily put her book back beside her bed and pulled out her homework, they had some transfiguration homework and a history of magic essay due to be made from their notes that they had _supposedly_ taken that morning in class on the Troll Wars of 1820. Lily had finished hers by the time dinner was called she had finished and started her transfiguration but it wasn't due until Monday which gave her a good head start on it. She had been good at homework when she was back at home, she always had it done and her sister was always complaining about it being unnatural, I guess the magic powers were just a follow up to the weird pleasure she got from a finished stack of homework sitting in front of her. Maggie hadn't even started but she was stretched out on her bed, Mary was humming a tune to herself, wandering idly through her thoughts about her first day of Hogwarts.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**First Year – Part 2**

Lily took her seat between Mary and Maggie. The three girls talking excitedly about the ceiling which was a stormy grey with lightning streaking across it, pumpkin lanterns floating beneath it with the candles that usually hung above the tables to light the vast hall. It was their first Halloween in the castle and Lily's family had never really done very much for Halloween so she was quite excited to be doing anything other than giving sweets to all the other kids whose parents let them dress up and go trick-or-treating.

James and his family had always gone all out for Halloween the house elves would decorate the house and his parents would invite over their friends from the ministry and their family for a big Halloween party. They'd be having it without him that year but James didn't particularly mind. All he was missing was his Uncle Ernie consuming too much firewhisky and dancing on the table while his Aunt Mabel shouted at him to get down and behave while she swayed a little from the wine she'd been drinking herself.

In the hall Professor Dumbledore stood up from the table and the room grew silent. "Happy Halloween students and welcome to our annual Halloween feast. I believe the food will be extraordinary and we'd better eat it quickly or the swarms of bats will descend on us." He said grinning, the students were hoping he was joking, "So let us eat." Dumbledore clapped his hands and in front of them appeared the most magnificent feast they'd ever seen.

Lily put some food on her plate while James and his friends piled it on with a very elegant air…not!

Anyway the reason behind that whole eating like a pack of wild pigs that were going to die in five minutes thing was because of the prank that they had pulled. There may or may not have been boxes in the rafters which when the clock struck six an hour into the feast. The feast for Halloween was open until seven-thirty for the special occasion. Anyway the boxes in the rafters contained a lot of fake blood held inside them. They were eating at such an alarmingly fast rate so that they could stand outside the hall to watch the surprise and horror that ensued when this happened.

The boxes were dotted among the rafters, six along the rafters above the Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables while mercifully there was only three among the Gryffindor rafters but they couldn't leave them out entirely that would be unfair.

Lily and her friends completely unaware of the fact that they would soon be, either drenched or splattered with blood. They all ate and drank pumpkin juice merrily and soon the main course had disappeared from the tables to be replaced by a truly fantastic range of puddings. There was ice-cream of many varieties, chocolate gateau, buns, cakes and cookies etc. etc.

The pranksters sat and nonchalantly ate their dessert carefully checking the time every once in a while though Peter was getting noticeably jumpy at the thought of what was about to happen.

A few moments before the aforementioned prank the four boys exit the room quietly unnoticed by any of the others though Lily noticed and happened to be wondering at the precise moment when a box was tilting above her head that she wondered why those boys who ate almost everything off of the table every single night at dinner would leave such a magnificent feast _early_, it was bizarre and she was thinking about this when her head was suddenly covered in sticky fake blood.

She let out a little shout of shock and horror before jumping out of her seat and as she looked around she noticed that this wasn't unusual at that particular moment as twenty other locations in the hall were drenched in the fake blood. The only thing was, well, the box fell from the rafters after her and onto Lily's head and thus sprang the cut in her head and then came the real blood dripping from it. She bolted from the hall past the four boys. James had an interestingly twisted look on his face between amusement and terror at what Lily might do to him when she found out that it was him.

Mary and Maggie ran after her having been severely splashed by the gooey liquid also. Lily slowed at the base of the stairs and stopped to turn. She walked back over to the group of boys, "Why are you out here watching the great hall?" She asked in an extremely strained voice.

"Just standing." James said. Sirius whistled trying to sound innocent and failing entirely. Peter's eyes were darting around everywhere wildly. Remus simply looked guilty.

Lily growled under her breath, "I swear if I find out you had anything to do with this I'll kill you." She threatened and climbed the stairs to take a shower and wash the gross sticky stuff out of her hair. She didn't yet know that she was bleeding. Her waist length curly red hair was drenched and Lily was horrified. Her friends caught up with her on her way to the common room.

"My hair is ruined," Maggie growled. Mary was just extremely silent pulling her hairbrush through her tangle of brown hair.

Lily showered and it was only when the hot water splashed on the tender part of her head that she noticed the cut. She had been so angry that she hadn't noticed how sore it was. When she got out of the shower she carefully dried her hair and put on some clothes, she returned to her room and Mary looked at her head,

"Lil, I think that you should go to Madame Pomfrey." She said and Maggie nodded in agreement on the way past as she went down into the common room. Lily followed with her hand on the back of her head. They passed the four boys; James and Sirius each clamped a hand to their heads and making dramatic noises. Lily rolled her eyes,

"Sorry, just stopping the blood from coming out of my head." She said holding up her hand to show them. That wiped the smiles off of their faces as she immediately ran for it out of the portrait hole and along a maze of corridors to the infirmary on the first floor. When she arrived the lighting in the room was dim and Madam Pomfrey was bustling around a seventh year who had tried to curse his acne off, let's just say he was lacking a nose at that moment.

Lily walked swiftly up hoping she wouldn't need stitches. "Excuse me," She said to Madame Pomfrey who smiled,

"Can I help you dear?" she asked, Lily indicated her head and Madame Pomfrey took Lily's hand off of her head. She examined it for a minute, "What happened to you, dear?" She asked.

Lily shrugged, "Something fell on my head." She said, she may be mad, but she wasn't going to tell on him. That wouldn't gain her any friends. So Madame Pomfrey had her fixed up and ready to go in about five minutes and she went back up to Gryffindor tower to finish her homework. Lily showered again and it took almost an hour worth of shampoo and conditioning and her hair was back to its previously clean and shiny state. Maggie was sitting on her bed her hair in curlers and Mary's wrapped in a towel. They were dressed for bed early because they thought it pointless changing right before they were about to change into their pyjamas anyway. All of them were highly suspicious of those four boys and none of them doubted that it had been them one bit, earlier in the week they'd put itching powder in Severus's robes causing a sudden outburst in the great hall, Lily wasn't laughing with the rest of them, though he'd been avoiding her she was still his friend.

They all went to sleep early as it was Sunday anyway so they had to get up for classes on Monday anyway.

And that night Lily Evans fell asleep with dreams of revenge dancing in her head.

Monday morning started Lily off at six thirty am when Maggie shook her awake so they could have a go at getting the last of the stuff out of their hair. Maggie hadn't been quite unsuccessful in her pursuit but she still had a reddish tint to her blonde curls that morning. Mary's hair was a weird mixture of the usual hazel colour and bright red and she wasn't very happy about it evidently as she tried to clean it with magic, a book was resting open on the table under the mirror. Lily followed her friend's examples and after having washed and dressed she packed her things up and piled them into her book bag as her friends did the same, more slowly as they were less eager to get to class than Lily so she was out of the room and down in the common room before they all joined her and they walked to their first class together, Maggie still had a sort of reddish tint to her hair and Lily could tell it was annoying her, having the lightest hair of the three of them it didn't wash out as easily. They had charms first hour with Professor Marshall; they were on to lumos, producing light from the end of their wands. As they went in Professor Marshall was sitting at his desk with his feet up. Lily sat down next to Maggie who sat down next Mary and on Lily's other side was. Oh no. James Potter. She'd known him maybe three or four weeks but she had in that time grown to intensely dislike him because of his arrogance and his pranks and the way he and his little friends acted in the first place. She ignored him and turned to the empty desk in front of her, she pulled out a piece of blank parchment and an ink bottle, a quill and her Charms textbook. She copied the title written on the blackboard onto her parchment in her neat loopy hand writing. Maggie sighed, "I love your hand writing Lily it's just so pretty."

James looked over at her parchment, "God, how small can your hand writing be?" He asked and Lily looked at his clumsy scrawl. It was slanted and sharp with smudges coming out of some of the letters. She smiled,

"Well, my hand writing is nicer than yours anyway." She said, Maggie sniggered and Sirius laughed,

"Yes, having nice hand writing is totally way better than mad pranking skills." He said, "And if I do say so myself, I'm not so bad either." Lily's face grew sombre.

She touched her head subconsciously,

"Well, watch where you stage your pranks next time." Maggie said sensing Lily's inability to come up with a comeback herself. Professor Marshall captured their attention then with the actual lesson. Lily sat avidly taking notes at an alarming rate while the others struggled through what he was saying. At the end of that hour Lily had filled two and a half pages, Maggie close behind with almost two, Mary at one and a half and James and Sirius at a half page each. They were dismissed with the homework of actually producing light for the next lesson. Leaving Lily with virtually nothing to do, she had already managed to use lumos once or twice for reading under the covers, she had found it in the standard book of spells volume one.

There next class was potions, they had a double lesson. It was one of Lily's favourite subjects so far, she was really good at it and Professor Slughorn loved her. He was really surprised to hear that she was actually a muggle-born and in no way related to any wizards or witches that she knows of. The three girls walked to potions together, Maggie and Lily took their places at their desks with Sirius and James.

"We're brewing a babbling beverage today, collect your ingredients, cauldrons and take out your equipment, I have put the recipe on the board and I will be handing back grades on your potions from the last class." Professor Slughorn said from his big arm chair behind his desk, "Begin." He gave them a fifteen minute start before he began telling them their grades.

"Did Petunia write you back yet?" Maggie asked Lily as she cut up her ingredients. Lily looked down, carefully finished cutting a pile of roots.

"Not yet. She says she hates me." Lily said the sadness evident in her voice, "But she has to talk to me some time, what about Christmas and summer holidays? She'll get over it and we'll be just how we used to in no time."

Maggie shrugged, "I guess you're right, you know her. Maybe the letters just take longer from muggle post rooms."

"Post offices." Lily corrected her. She'd been doing that a lot lately, there were a lot more wizard born students than muggle born and wizards never really had the facts straight about muggles anyway. It's like someone made it all up the things she'd heard. Toasters are a weapon of mass destruction, cars were driven only by children of five or lower. She was pretty sure the girl who told her that had just made it up on the spot.

"Who's Petunia?" Sirius asked, Lily looked at him, her eyes narrowed,

"When did I invite you into this conversation?" Lily asked. James clicked his tongue.

"Temper, temper Evans." He said. Lily scowled at him.

"Appearances Potter." She said eyeing his hair. His hands messed it up again and he smirked at her,

"Look who's talking Evans, I guess what they say about red heads is true." He said, Lily's eyebrows knitted together.

"What do they say about redheads?" She asked.

"They have a temper to match their hair and nothing between their ears." He said, Lily's face went red and fire could be seen dancing in her bright green eyes. The thing is the fire was actually dancing on the desk between the two of them and James having left his fire on had set Lily's textbook on fire. Slughorn had pointed his wand at the fire and said, "Aguamenti." A jet of water extinguished the flames.

"Miss Evans, I am surprised at you, Mr Potter, not so surprised." Professor Slughorn said, "Detention tonight 7 sharp. Both of you." Before Lily could argue the class ended. Lily poured a sample of her potion into the vial and cleaned up her belongings. She left for transfiguration. Both Mary and Maggie thought it was terribly unfair. Lily decided that day. She had never particularly liked James Potter but now she hated him.

By the end of the day Lily was absolutely seething she'd been thinking about what happened and how she'd have to give up her nice relaxing Monday evening of finishing what little homework she had and then sit and read her favourite book 'Pride & Prejudice' and do absolutely nothing, that was the plan she had for the evening.


	5. Chapter 5

**__****I do not own any of these characters or claim to own them nor do I claim the ideas of J.K. Rowling. All characters and magical processes are copyrighted and belong to J.K. Rowling**

**Chapter Five**

**Detention **

That night at seven pm sharp like she'd been told, always punctual, even to detentions which she would rather stick needles in her eyes than go to. But when she couldn't find any needles she decided she'd better go anyway. She looked herself over in the mirror before remembering the company she would have and remembered she really did not care what James Potter thought of the way she looked.

James waved goodbye to Sirius, Peter and Remus and walked down the staircases to the dungeons where Lily was already standing outside Slughorn's classroom. James grinned mischievously as he sidled up next to her.

"Hey, Evans," he said in his usual care free way.

"How can you be so calm, we're in detention." Lily said briefly pausing from biting her nails.

"I'm here so often, it has become a second home. I don't really get nervous, although you little miss goodie two shoes, obviously are." He said amusement evident in his tone of voice as he looked her over. Sweaty palms, biting nails, hunched against the wall, red face.

"You know, this is all your fault."

"We wouldn't even be here if you didn't have such a big temper."

"What?!" She said her face reddening, "This is my fault, you're the one who left your fire on and _you _nudged my textbook on to it and _you_ started the fire and now _I _have to replace the textbook that _you_ burnt. In short, I'm going to say, you're fault." She felt hot and decided to stop shouting before he got any more satisfaction out of her little outburst.

"O...K..." He said between fits of laughter.

Lily grew red and her eyes began to fill, this day had just sucked, she let a boy get the better of her and in spite of what she had said she did blame herself for the fire in potions. If she hadn't gotten so angry then James wouldn't have become so distracted. The day had been awful even after that because she'd been nervously biting her nails and thinking about what was going to happen to her in detention. She didn't know what happened at Hogwarts for detention, she didn't even know what muggles did for their detentions, she'd never been there before. She tried to stop the first tear escaping but it slid slowly down her face and she wiped her eyes on the sleeves of her robes.

James looked at her about to continue when he noticed her face was wet in the dim light of the candles hovering above them outside the dungeon's door. _I didn't mean to make her cry. Should I mention it or pretend I didn't see it or...or...or...-_. His worries were cut short as the door opened and Professor Horace Slughorn and his bulbous moustache invited them inside the room.

"Welcome Miss Evans, Mr Potter." He said sitting down behind his desk, "I would like you to clean the desks tonight and rearrange the textbooks in the cupboard."

Lily immediately walked over to the cupboard and began to pull the text books out. James chuckled to himself,

"What?" Lily asked in frustration.

"Your even an over achiever in detention, you can't get in trouble."

"Well, I want to just do what I came here to do and move on with my life and never come back to detention ever again." She said with a tone of petulance.

James just laughed quietly as Professor Slughorn closed the door to his office leaving them in the classroom, quite alone.

When he left, James sat in the chair behind the desk in the classroom and put his feet up on the solid oak desk. Lily had already stacked the books neatly by size and was already pushing them back inside the cupboard, she dusted off her knees and hands and stood up straight again. She picked up the bucket of water from the ground and began scrubbing at the first desk in the classroom. That is when she finally looked up and realised that James wasn't doing anything.

"Look, Potter, I don't like it any more than you do but we have to work together if we want to leave here before midnight, I'm not going to be late to school because of _you_."

"God, you are such a swot."

"I am not," she said defensively her voice rising an octave.

"You are, you really are."

"I am not going to start cleaning until you admit that I am _not_ a swot."

"Fine, you are not a swot." He said raising his hands in mock surrender. Lily nodded satisfied and began scrubbing at the table top again.

"This doesn't mean I'm going to do all of the work," Lily said, "Would you please do something." James heaved a sigh and got up sauntering over as though he was doing her a favour and began lightly scrubbing at the top of another table. About an hour later Lily had finished all but one of the tables and that was because James Potter had been working on the same spot of wood for the past half hour and maintained he could do it himself. Lily sighed and let him get on with it up to a point but then she snapped, shoved him aside and scrubbed at it quickly very conscious of the fact that it was almost nine and she still had to finish some of her homework. She blew her hair out of her face, when she finished she knocked on Professor Slughorn's door.

He let them go as soon as Lily had said they were finished. He didn't even check if they had finished to his satisfaction, probably because he wanted to get back to his box of crystallised pineapple and the glass of fire whiskey in his office.

Unfortunately for Lily she had to walk back to Gryffindor tower with James.

"So, Evans, enjoy detention did you?" He asked and Lily gave him a reproachful look and sighed.

"Potter, I will never be in a detention with you again, I swear to god, if wizards even believe in gods."

"More like Merlin," James suggested helpfully.

Lily sighed as they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the wall. "Mandrake," they said in unison.

"Evening." The Fat Lady said as she swung open and they climbed back into the common room which was by that time only occupied by sixth and seventh years. Lily ran up the stairs to the first year girls dormitories and slammed the door behind her. James did the same.

"Hey guys," James said as he flopped down on his bed.

Remus was sitting cross legged on his own bed with a book sitting open in front of him, it was about werewolves. At the time the marauders had not been formed and Remus Lupin's secret was still a secret.

"How was detention?" Remus asked looking up from his book.

"Evans got some annoyed at me, but she mostly did everything and we got out way earlier than if I'd been there by myself." He said.

Sirius laughed, "You do enjoy winding people up don't you."

James nodded, "Like you don't." He added sarcastically and Sirius grinned a sly grin.

Peter smiled nervously, "I've never had detention before."

Remus laughed, "Me neither but I have a feeling that James and Sirius will probably corrupt us by the end of this year."

James and Sirius nodded in unison as they said, "Definitely."

"He is insufferable." Lily said as she changed behind the curtains of her four-poster. Maggie smiled,

"Well you never have to be in detention with him again or in detention at all just watch yourself when you're around those four boys." She cautioned as she took out the plaits in her blonde hair as she got ready to go to sleep.

In the room there was a real contrast in personalities. Mary was mild mannered, difficult to irritate and had soft, pretty features and had soft brown hair and pale blue eyes. She was friendly and kind and unlikely to defend herself. An easy target in contrast to Maggie's tough shell personality and having a high likelihood of her punching people in the face when they reach the end of her very short temper. Her very obviously pretty features and tall, slim body shape made her just about the prettiest girl in their year. Her medium blonde hair fell to the middle of her back and her dark blue eyes. And then there was Lily the fiery red head with the short temper, and the distinct almond shape of her eyes, the bright green of her irises. She was somewhere between them shorter than Maggie, a little taller than Mary. Quick to defend herself and others, shy on first acquaintance and not quite as prone to violence as Maggie but definitely closer to it than Mary would be. But James wasn't wrong she was definitely more fiery than her new friends.

"I am fine with that." Lily said, "I would be fine with never seeing him again quite frankly.

"Well, I guess this would be the wrong time to tell you that you will have to sit with him and his stupid little sidekick every potions lesson for the next year." Maggie said in a voice that was obviously not trying to comfort her or delude her to make her feel better. She was frank with her and they would come to love that about Maggie over the following years of her friendship.

They would all end up with lifelong friendships by the end of their time at Hogwarts. Lifelong ties to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, to teachers, to other students. Because those were the defining seven years of their lives and would alter the lives of people generations after them.

**Read & Review please :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

**Christmas Holidays**

The weeks leading up to Christmas were full of laughter and snow.

Lily, Mary, Maggie and Melody had become thick as thieves and were very excited about Christmas. They were all going home for Christmas. Lily's sister had written and told her that they were going away for Christmas and she didn't want her to come. So Lily signed herself up the second McGonagall came around with the parchment to sign. She wrote her parents a letter saying she wanted to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. She wanted to go home but she didn't want Petunia to be so horrid that she'd just ruin Christmas for her altogether. James was going home for Christmas, as was Remus, Peter and Sirius (against his will of course). She didn't know what happened. It looked like she was basically the only one left in the first year dormitories.

Severus hadn't gone home which Lily could say she understood considering she knew his parents. She hadn't seen much of him that past term. She missed him but she couldn't say that he seemed to miss her at all running around with Malfoy and Avery his new little gang. Lily was looking forward to lying in and having a bit of alone time. Because everyone she usually spoke with was at home with their families. They were at home drinking hot chocolate, sitting reading 'A Christmas Carol' on Christmas Eve while their extended family came over. Not that she could possibly be jealous, she didn't really know what she could do in her free time because she had zero homework and technology didn't work within the boundaries of Hogwarts so it sort of ruled out any watching of a TV even if there was one. She could read her books, she had most of her books from home in a trunk under her bed. She was the only first year still at school over Christmas, other than the teachers and herself the great hall was almost empty during meals so she had taken to reading at the table too. She wrote to Melody, Mary and Maggie over the holidays and they were all having wonderful Christmases. None of the people in higher years bothered talking to her, there was a couple of kids left in Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Lily hadn't had much to do with Severus during their first term of school, they had both made their respective groups of friends but neither had really kept up with the other one. It was on the first morning of the holidays after breakfast that Lily found Severus sitting in the library.

She walked directly up to him and sat down across the table from him, "Hey Sev, what you up to?" She asked him. He looked at her for a moment in suspicion before answering,

"Fantastic Beasts and where to find them," he said, "What about you," he gestured to the book tucked under her arm, she took it out.

"Muggle book from home, Pride & Prejudice," she said holding it up, "It's really good." She said.

He sighed, "Lily, why are you here?" He asked. Lily's face immediately became a mask of hurt and anger,

"Because Sev, I miss having you as a friend and you've been ignoring me since I got sorted so I wanted to tell you to get over it, what does it have to do with your friends or my friends if we are friends?" She asked, "If they want to be sore about it, let them."

Severus smiled, "Fine, I will," he said, "How's your first term been?" He asked.

Lily shrugged, "Good, good, I like Potions and Charms, but I can't fly…at all." She said, "I almost fell of the first time I was on a broom." She said clenching her teeth.

"Well, I'm no good either but I never thought that I would be, mum was never very good." He said. Madame Pince was giving them a glare and they both chuckled before they stopped talking and started reading their books. It was a good start to Lily's holiday. She had missed Severus, he was a good friend and it would good to have him back. She read about the exploits of the Bennet family, Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy and almost finished her book when dinner was about to start. Lily and Severus walked to the great hall together catching up.

"Why aren't you home for Christmas?" Severus asked her.

She sniggered, "You've met Petunia haven't you?" She asked jokingly, "She didn't want _the freak_ coming home and ruining her Christmas. What about you?" She asked.

Severus shrugged, "I was given the choice of staying here and I'd take that over their fighting." He said, "Anyway, do you want to meet after dinner?" He asked as they split to go to their respective tables of Gryffindor and Slytherin. Lily sat down and put some spaghetti and meat balls on her plate, her goblet filled with orange juice and she reopened her book and picked up where she left off in the library. She and Severus had been whispering in the library all afternoon and Lily was in quite a good mood. She was enjoying her dinner and for the first time since everyone left for the holidays she wasn't as upset that she wasn't one of them.

James Potter was looking forward to going home for the holidays; he missed his parents although he would never admit it. He was an only child and his parents doted on him, his mother more than his father because he was at work a lot, he was an Auror at the ministry of magic. He ran the department. That Christmas however his dad had an emergency at work and his mother had to go to the hospital because his maternal grandmother was dying and just as quickly as he had gotten home from Hogwarts he was on the train back, his parents apologised profusely but that still didn't change that he would be at school for the holidays which sucked for him.

When he arrived back dinner was ending and after his stuff had been put back in his dormitory he rushed back down the stairs to eat before the food disappeared back into the kitchen. He arrived and sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"Did you miss me?" He asked as he slid along the bench to sit across from none other than Lily Evans. She sighed.

"What are you doing here?" She asked in a strained voice. He grinned, lighting up his face. He was wickedly amused.

"Circumstances changed and so here I am," he said, "It looks like it's just you and me." He said smiling in fake innocence.

It was Lily's turn to laugh, "No I have other people to spend time with thanks."

James guffawed, "Like who?"

"Severus, you met him on the train, you were very rude to him, remember." She said jogging his memory even though they both knew that he remembered what had happened. James hadn't really bothered with Snape since then but that was all about to change.

"Actually, Evans, Slytherin can't go in the Gryffindor common room so you are stuck with me unless you plan spending the next week or so in your bedroom." James said feeling triumphant.

Lily shrugged, "I don't mind my own company thank you."

James chuckled, "I annoy you don't I?" He asked her and he laughed, "This is going to be a fun holiday."

Lily heaved a sigh as she sat in the seat beside the window in the Gryffindor common room. She had sent a letter home to her mum and dad and Petunia and they had sent her presents through a wizarding contact at the post office, they were sitting on top of the trunk at he foot of her bed. There was one from her mum, one from her dad, one from Petunia and one from all three of them. Lily knew that the present from Petunia had probably also been bought by her mother. Petunia hadn't written back to her at all since the term had started and Lily had stopped writing to her at all. It was disheartening that her sister would abandon her because she was different. And she was worried that she had been away so long that her parents would start to agree with her. But she had decided she would much rather stay at school for Christmas than go home and have Petunia ruin Christmas for her and her family. Then again had she known that James Potter would be there over the holidays perhaps she would have gone home instead.

It was December 24th and Lily was sitting by the fire in the Gryffindor common room wearing an old stretched out green jumper, she had run out of books to read and Madame Pince had closed the library for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so she was trapped and she had nothing else to do. She couldn't exactly watch TV, what with there not being any inside Hogwarts and most of the student population not knowing what on earth a television is.

Not that she could really talk she hardly knew what people were talking about these days, everything in the wizarding world was foreign to her. She didn't know what wizard's chess was or what a gnome actually looked like or that people could turn into animals or any of those things.

James had grown up in that world, it was different for him, his father worked as an auror at the ministry of magic. It was nine o'clock in the evening on Christmas Eve and Lily Evans was so bored that she walked up the stairs to her room and went to sleep.

12:00am: _Lily, go to sleep, just count sheep, count to ten or think of songs or... _

2:00am: _OK Lily, this is getting ridiculous, go to sleep..._

4:00am: _You're barely even conscious anymore, for the love of god just drift, clear your mind, try to drift happily into unconsciousness..._

6:00am: _I wonder if mum, dad and Petunia are awake or not, Petunia can never sleep on Christmas Eve..._

7:00am: _Seven is an acceptable time to get up, right. I mean mum always insisted on waiting until 7:30. But mum isn't here. _

Lily looked outside the windows, there was a fresh layer of snow over the grounds of Hogwarts, no footprints, fresh and blank. The start of a new day. Christmas. She was usually happy at Christmas but she felt oddly deflated that she was by herself. She got out of bed, neatly smoothed the covers and plopped herself down on them cross-legged. She opened her presents, a floral print diary from Petunia, a necklace made up of little stars from her dad and a green skirt from her mum. A book about magical animals from Mary and a pair of little blue stud earrings from Maggie. She put the paper in the bin across the room and got dressed in her new green skirt and her old white button down shirt, her new earrings and her black flat shoes. Who knew that Christmas could be such a quiet affair. It never had been at her house, they took it year about for her grandparents visiting them for Christmas and them going to see her grandparents at their house.

When Lily had gotten dressed she took her book, 'Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them', and went down the stairs from the girl's dormitories and was going to sit in her favourite chair by the fire. The only thing was, _he _was sitting in her chair, in his pyjamas with a pile of presents in his lap and surrounding his feet. He really must have had a big family, Lily thought.

"Merry Christmas, Evans."

"Merry Christmas, Potter." Lily said, in the spirit of Christmas, she decided not to be sarcastic straight away.

She sat down in the chair by the window instead and opened the book.

"It's Christmas day and you're reading a book." He said laughing.

"What else would I be doing?" Lily asked.

"Well, the remainder of Gryffindor tower are going out for a snowball fight with Ravenclaw house later, you should come too." He reasoned and Lily sighed,

"Will you leave me alone if I do?"

"Sure, why not."

"Then, fine, I will come outside for the snowball fight," she said in surrender.

James grinned, "You better watch your back, Evans." He said as he climbed the stairs to his dorm to change into his clothes.

There were only a few kids left in Gryffindor tower over Christmas; Elaine Marsden and Benny Lake from seventh year, Harriet Summers from sixth year, Laney Tomkins from fourth and Joey Cavalleri from second year. And as with every year the seventh years organised the usual snowball fight. They'd had snowball fights with the kids from Slytherin house, but that got a little bit too competitive and ugly. With the Hufflepuff's they were just so nice about it that you felt bad for hitting them with snowballs and with the Ravenclaw's, they were clever enough for the battle tactics and not trying to kill them.

James came down the stairs followed by Joey and Benny, they were all bundled up in winter coats, scarves, gloves and hats.

"Evans get your coat, we're headed out and tell the girls to hurry it up." James said with a laugh as they crossed the room and piled out of the portrait hole in a hurry.

Lily went up to her bedroom and met the other girls in the hallways on her way back down, they all followed the fresh footprints in the snow to where the rest of their army was huddled behind a wall of snow, ten or so metres away stood another wall of snow behind which the remaining Ravenclaw students hid.

The boys were discussing battle tactics when the girls reached them. "Right, battle tactics ladies." Benny said, he was tall with sandy blonde hair. "Elaine and I will go for the ones who run for our barracks and, James and Laney will stay here and do the same. Lily, Joey, Harriet you try and sneak around the other side and try to attack their barracks."

James nodded as though it were a full on war. Probably forgetting that they had only missed out on the last great war in the muggle world by 26 years. Lily's grandfather had been in the war. He didn't like to talk about it, he didn't really talk much to anybody anymore.

The group split and Lily followed the others around the side to ambush the Ravenclaws, unfortunately they were the smartest house in the school and a waterfall of snowballs came upon them. Lily fell flat on her back and decided to stay there, technically she had fulfilled her promise and now James had to leave her alone. She got up and quickly walked back to the castle, through the entrance hall and up the stairs where she abandoned her winter coat, scarf, gloves and hat. She had never liked snowball fights. So she walked to the library where she knew she would find Severus.

"Hey Sev," Lily said sitting down across the table from him.

"Hey Lily, Merry Christmas, where have you been?"

"The Gryffindors were having a snowball fight with the Ravenclaws but I ducked out early, I only went so Potter would leave me alone."

Severus grimaced, "Potter."

Lily chuckled, "Exactly."

"Do you want to go to dinner together?" Severus asked.

"Yeah, it must almost be ready now." Lily said, "Let's go."

Severus pushed his chair out and made for the door with Lily at his side, "So, are you nervous about exams this summer?"

Lily nodded vigorously, "Yes. Let's not talk about it." She said with a nervous giggle.

Severus grinned, "OK, then."

They walked down the stairs to the entrance hall where some tired looking Ravenclaws and Gryffindors drenched in melted snow.

James ran up to Lily, "You bailed on us, but we still won, so it's cool." He said running a hand through his hair to mess it up suitably.

Lily smiled, "I'm glad, Potter, Severus, Severus, Potter."

"Ah yes, Snivellus wasn't it." James said as he passed them on the stairs throwing an arrogant smile over his shoulder as he went.

Lily sighed, "Ignore him."

Severus nodded, "Yeah, sure."

When they got inside the great hall the four house tables had been pushed aside and replaced with one big table that had enough seats for the remaining teachers, staff and students. Lily and Severus sat down together. Dumbledore smiled at them from the top seat at the table.

"Merry Christmas, Miss Evans, Mr Snape," He said smiling, a twinkle in his eyes.

"Merry Christmas Professor." Lily said smiling.

The other staff filed in and sat all around the table, the students doing the same, for Lily it was nice, everyone was mixed, sitting together, teachers and staff, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, Slytherins and Ravenclaws.

They had a really nice dinner, everyone pulled their crackers put on their hats, and tucked into a fantastic meal, Lily and Severus spoke so much that they could hardly believe they'd gone an entire term without talking to each other. Or talking very little.

James sat wondering what the heck Lily was doing talking to a Slytherin and Severus sat wondering why James was such an idiot.

The day passed by quite uneventfully for the most part once dinner was over, mostly because everyone had eaten so much at dinner that they could barely get to their common rooms. Lily bid a good night to Severus and walked up the stairs to her own common room while he headed for the dungeons.

Christmas day was over and Lily slept peacefully knowing that even if her own family never accepted her again, she had a sort-off family at Hogwarts.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

**A New Term**

It seemed like almost no time at all until January came around and the castle was full and bustling with life again.

Christmas had passed pleasantly, Lily spent a lot of time with Severus and James spent a lot of time resenting the both of them that Sirius wasn't staying for the holidays just so he had someone to bicker with and annoy. They had become like brothers in the short time they had spent together as roommates and friends.

Lily was really excited when Mary and Maggie arrived back, she told them everything that she had done and they told her about their holidays. Maggie didn't get along with her family, so it seemed only fitting that she would be happy to see her friends again. Its true what they say about friends, they're the family that you choose for yourself.

Mary had a quiet Christmas as was expected of her and her family. Sirius's mother spent most of it shouting at him that he was associating with mudbloods and blood traitors and that he was becoming one of them so he locked himself inside his room for the remainder of the holidays, only leaving to talk to his favourite cousin Andromeda who resented the entire family as much as Sirius did.

Peter didn't talk about his holidays. Remus looked terribly ill again and said that he and his parents had caught the flu over Christmas.

The three girls were sitting in their room the night before term was to start, all sitting on Lily's bed in the middle of the room, cross legged. They were all in their pyjamas. Lily's hair was pulled back in a tight braid, Maggie's fell gracefully from her shoulders and Mary had her soft brown hair in a ponytail.

"Are you excited for class tomorrow?" Lily asked them.

Maggie laughed loudly and sarcastically, "But of course I am, then I think I'll go to the dentist and have some dental surgery to end the day before I come home and stick bamboo splinters up my nails."

Lily and Mary exchanged looks, "Drama queen." They both said in unison.

Maggie hit them both with her pillow. "Thank you." She said fluttering her eyelashes.

"Well, I want to get some sleep, so, shuffle." Lily said pushing them off her bed.

"Night." Mary said as she pulled her blanket up to her neck.

"Night." Said the disembodied voice that came from Maggie's bed.

And with that the three girls went to sleep.

_Dear Lily, _

_Your father, Petunia and I are going to visit your Gran, we haven't told her about you yet, so please don't send any letters. We'll tell her another time, it's just with her being so ill we don't want to put anything too strenuous on her. We love you, we'll see you for the Summer Holidays. Do all your homework, go to sleep on time and remember that we love you very much. _

_With Love, Mum _

Strenuous, what did she mean by that, that Lily's very existence had become an inconvenience for them simply because she was different than they had thought her before. Apparently what they'd been telling all of their friends, neighbours and relatives was that Lily was accepted to a very prestigious Private boarding school. None of her friends had asked about her, according to Petunia who was a not too reliable source of information these days. What with her hating Lily and everything.

That letter arrived for Lily at breakfast, she was a little bit put out that her mum would send her a letter like that, Petunia maybe, but her mum. She stayed quiet all day, studiously taking notes and not really talking to anybody. She hadn't told Mary and Maggie about it but they knew it was something to do with the letter but Lily hadn't shown it to them and neither of them wanted to ask. Lily felt hurt, she was only eleven, she didn't know how to feel about it exactly, but she knew she wasn't happy.

That morning she went from class to class drifting, rather than engaging in her classes, she went straight to her room and pulled the curtains around her bed. She didn't surface until dinner was ready and she went down the stairs to see her friends.

"Hey," Lily said sitting down beside Mary. She reached across the table and put some pasta and meatballs on her plate. Mary and Maggie exchanged glances. "What?" Lily asked.

"Are you OK?" Maggie asked, "You seemed a little out of it today."

Lily shrugged, "I guess it was just the letter, I think that Petunia is convincing my parents that I'm a freak of nature."

Mary groaned, "No offence Lily, but I hate your sister."

Maggie's eyes brightened, "I know, you can come live with me, my parents will adopt you." Lily laughed,

"I'm afraid that I personally am still quite attached to my parents and even Petunia but I may need some place to hide out over the Summer holidays if that's OK." She said with a small smile.

Maggie smiled, and then sighed as though it was a big inconvenience for her, "Well, I guess I could try and swing it with the parentals."

Mary laughed, "I don't think you'd want to stay at my house. My mum is pregnant again and I have three brothers who are older than me and two younger sisters, I share my room with two six year olds."

Maggie smirked, "No thank you, I'm an only child."

Lily was beginning to feel better, eating her dinner and talking with her friends, it made her feel like she was part of a different family who accepted her completely.

The rest of the week passed without any letters going to or from Lily to the rest of the Evans family. And indeed afterwards in the coming months no correspondence passed.

Mary and Maggie spent a lot of time with Lily and they became very familiar with each other, it came to be May and Lily was tutoring both Mary and Maggie in Potions and Transfiguration. She was very well prepared to pass her exams but she didn't want to leave Hogwarts, the idea of going back home and not being able to use magic wasn't a very appealing one.

The examination process was proving to be quite daunting for the higher years if the fact that at least five of them had had nervous breakdowns was anything to go by.

James and Sirius were clever, so prepared for it. Remus was very smart and studied a lot and so, prepared for it and finally Peter, who was neither studying nor prepared.

"Come on Remus, come play exploding snap, you've been studying nonstop for, like, three days." Sirius exaggerated with a sly grin on his face. "Pete, you swap with him, you study, you do need it."

Peter turned red.

"Do you think that Evans is still mad?" James asked his friends.  
Remus laughed, "Obsessed much."

James laughed without humour, "Thank you Remus."

"You are very welcome," Remus said shuffling the cards.

Sirius and Remus played exploding snap late into the night, completely forgetting that they had a transfiguration exam in the morning.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

**Exams...O.V.E.R.**

"Exams are O-V-E-R, over. Thank god." Maggie said leaning her head back against the tree. They were sitting by the lake. Lily's brows furrowed.

"I hope I did OK."

"Oh shut up, we both know that you're going to get top grades." Maggie said blowing a strand of her blonde hair out of her eyes.

Lily rolled her eyes, "Both of you will have done really well, I wonder how everyone else will get on." She said her eyes narrowing at the boys a few hundred metres away hovering beside the lake's edge.

Mary laughed, "I'm sure that "everyone" will fail due to the fact they spent the whole year hexing Slytherin students and playing pranks on everybody in the whole school."

Maggie, Lily and Mary walked to the great hall together, their four usual tormentors following close behind.

"What's up, Evans?"

"Nothing much Potter, get lost."

Maggie and Mary laughed, James blushed involuntarily.

Remus hit the palm of his hand against his forehead in exasperation while Sirius just laughed looking wickedly amused at James's efforts.

Lily merely rolled her eyes again, this time at her friends, "Oh shut up."

James continued to follow, "Now, now, Evans, exams are over, you can unwind, kick back, relax, try not to be a swot for the last week of term."

Lily frowned, "Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?"

James smiled, "It's a suggestion, Evans."

Lily laughed without humour, "Go jump off a cliff." She said with narrowed eyes as she, Mary and Maggie proceeded to the table.

"You guys are about as compatible as oil and water," Maggie observed.

Lily shrugged, "What can I say? I hate him, he hates me, our relationship works the way it is."

Mary smiled, "Don't fix what isn't broken, as they say."

Lily nodded, exactly.

They all loaded up their plates with food and ate and drank and were merry, telling stories, talking about their summers, Lily had written her first letter home in about six months to ask if she could spend the end of the holidays with Maggie and her family who had offered to take her to Diagon Alley for her school supplies at the end of the holidays.

Her mother had sent back that it would be fine, convenient even because Lily's Granny still hadn't been told about her _unusual_ abilities.

Maggie sighed when she heard this, "No offence but I probably won't visit you at your own house because your family are beginning to irritate me and I haven't even met them."

Lily chuckled, "They seem to have that effect on people."

"Well, I have decided that you and I are going to spend our time at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and at Honeydukes." Maggie said, "We can meet Mary and everything, I can show you how to travel by floo powder and I'll teach you the rules to Quidditch because we haven't gone to any of the games this year, that reminds me, we have to go to some Quidditch games next year, maybe try and make some more friends, spend a little less time in the library. You can meet my cousins, they're pretty cool, Frederick is a dragonologist and Marcy is an author, she's writing a book about Merlin." Maggie said, barely stopping for breath between her points, it's like she was still trying to sell the holiday when Lily was already going.

Mary smiled, "Well, it would be really good if we could do that, hopefully Mum won't send me out with the twins." She groaned.

"I'm going to go upstairs and pack," Lily said suddenly getting up. "Make sure I can find everything." She said with an explanatory nod.

Mary nodded, "I'm going to stay here, I'll see you in a little bit."

Maggie nodded. "Me too," she smiled.

Lily smiled back and began walking back up to the castle.

Back in her dormitory she looked through her stuff, her uniform, her muggle clothes and jewellery. Her quills and ink and school books and other personal effects were collected on her bed. Clothes folded perfectly. She felt a hand on her shoulder,

"Lil, I think you have OCD." Maggie observed.

Lily laughed, "You have whatever the opposite is."

"Yeah, well, would you have me any other way?"

"No." Lily said hugging her friend, grinning broadly.

Maggie laughed, "Likewise."

"Right, we had better finish with all of this, we're going for the train first thing in the morning." Mary said from behind them. "Hurry up now."

The next morning everyone had had their luggage collected and got onto the train. Lily, Maggie and Mary found a compartment together. It just so happened that by the time four students reached the train almost all of the compartments were completely full.

"Do you mind if we join you?" Remus asked popping his head around the compartment door. Mary smiled,

"Of course not Remus," Mary said, her sweet temperament about to get Lily into quite the state.

They all piled in, Sirius wedged himself between Mary and Maggie, Peter was beside Mary. Remus took a seat on Lily's left and last but certainly not least, James entered and sat on Lily's right.

"Hey, Evans," he said grinning. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Potter." She said it as though it was a bad taste in her mouth.

Remus smiled, "What's everybody doing in the holidays then?"

"I'm helping mum with the kids, mum's due in July." Mary said, "Child number seven."

Remus raised his eyebrows, "I'm an only child, that's a lot of brothers and sisters."

Mary shrugged, "I'm used to it, I guess, I'm excited for my new brother/sister." She smiled again. Mary really was the sweetest girl.

Maggie grinned, "I'm going to be at my house and Lily's coming to stay with us for a month of the holidays."

James chuckled, "Lucky you." He commented. Lily glared at him from under her eyelashes.

Peter shrugged, "Nothing."

James let his head loll to one side, "Quidditch probably."

Mary smiled, "What about you Remus?"

"Nothing really," he said, "I just want to get home."

Lily stared past Remus out of the window at the passing countryside. She didn't really want to go home, it was beginning to sound like her parents weren't going to tell any of her family about her special abilities and that her sister would never love her again. It was a troubling thought but it was one that all evidence pointed towards.

Lily remained silent on most of the train ride, she listened to everybody else's conversations, watched them joke and laugh and cast small spells they knew they wouldn't be able to use for the next few months.

The train pulled into the station and they all piled off.

Lily, Mary and Maggie collected their trunks and walked out of the throng of people together. They all hugged each other and Lily spoke as she hugged Mary. "Promise we'll write every day, I'm not sure I can survive then first month without it." She hugged Maggie,

"I'll see you in August." She said grinning into her friend's shoulder. She suppressed a few tears and they parted ways, returning to their respective families. In Maggie's case, returning to the butler Maggie's parents had sent for her.

Lily approached her parents, smiling, she hugged them and they said they had missed her and that Petunia wasn't with them because she had a birthday party to go to.

The excuses begun and thus so did Lily Evan's holidays.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

**September 1****st**

That year September 1st was a Friday and at precisely 11 o'clock in the morning the Hogwarts Express departed from King's Cross Station like it had done for so many years before and would do many years after.

"Lily!" Mary said running into the compartment and throwing her arms around her, "Maggie!" She did the same again. "It feels like I haven't seen you in forever."

"Well, it has been a few months at least, so yeah, that seems about right." Maggie said as Mary released her.

Lily laughed, "I'm so excited to be back." She exclaimed, "I learned a lot of new spells from _the Standard Book of Spells Grade 2_, I can't wait to try them."

"You are such a geek." Maggie said elbowing her in the ribs; Mary fell into a fit of giggles.

"God, I've missed you two so much." She said with a sigh as she finished laughing.

Lily had loved the time she had spent at Maggie's house over the holidays, the rest of the time she had spent with Severus by the lake near their houses.

Mary had enjoyed her holidays too but would be glad to get a full night sleep without a newborn baby crying through the night as would her elder brothers, George was in seventh year, Ian was in fifth year and Tommy was in third year. They didn't really talk to each other during school terms, nor did they talk to Mary. Her mum had had another little girl; she was called Rosalie Jane MacDonald.

"Well, I can't wait, I'm just sorry we don't get classes until Monday." Lily said.

Mary and Maggie exchanged looks; it was good to be back.

Four compartments to the left James Potter had a hand knotted in his messy hair, he was smiling as he spoke to his friends.

Remus had had a good holiday other than his transformations. They had remained the horrible experience that they always were.

Sirius had gone to stay with James because his mother didn't want him influencing his younger brother Regulus who was going to be starting Hogwarts after the holidays. Regulus had found some fellow Slytherin hopefuls and was sitting with them at the other end of the train. James and Sirius had grown to be very close friends as they spent their summer together, they played Quidditch and exploding snap, that was mostly their activities, well they would sleep as well, they slept until noon almost every day.

"I am ready for the Quidditch team this year." James said confidently.

Sirius laughed, "James and I have been planning our pranks for the year, hopefully with less _interesting_ results than the paint prank."

James shrugged, "Look, I didn't know it was going to result in injuries." He said, "Next time Sirius, you should just do a better job of securing the buckets."

Sirius punched him in the arm.

Remus looked out of the window as Hogwarts appeared over the horizon.

It was good to be back.

After Professor Dumbledore had welcomed everyone and the sorting was over, Sirius's brother having been sorted into Slytherin, as his parents would have wanted. Sirius would have preferred that he be in Gryffindor but he knew just from the way Regulus covered his walls in newspaper reports about Voldemort and the horrible things that he and his little tribe of Death Eaters, as they called themselves, did. It was inescapable as much as Sirius would have liked it to be otherwise.

When Maggie's parents had taken her and Lily for their school things Lily had gotten a cat, she had called it Buttons. A very threatening name, it was a little kitten, it was a tabby cat. It was very fond of Lily already, she realised this as she felt something brushing up against her leg under the table and saw a little face looking back at her. She laughed and nudged Mary who sat beside her, she followed Lily's line of sight and found Buttons looking up at her with a confused look on her face.

Lily scratched her ear before Buttons decided to go a wander down the table, being the nosey little kitten that she was. Lily tried to call her back but Buttons paid no attention.

However the look on James Potter's face as a kitten jumped into his lap was quite amusing.

Lily, Mary and Maggie laughed so much that James could obviously tell that the kitten belonged to one of them. He stroked her and she seemed quite content just to sit there and be pampered. Lily was disappointed; it didn't look like she could train Buttons to attack James if she was so fond of him already.

When Dumbledore had dismissed them to bed, Lily approached James who grinned.

"You just couldn't keep away, could you, Evans?" He said sounding terribly cocky.

Lily laughed, then she pulled Buttons out of James's grip, "No, you stole my cat."

James laughed, "Ah, this is your cat." He said, "Well, she loves me."

Lily grimaced, "Yeah, well I've only had her a week, I haven't had a chance to teach her any taste yet." Lily said and then she turned on her heel and flounced up to bed, her nose in the air as she ignored him.

James sniggered, highly amused by her stalking off.

And so, their first night at Hogwarts ended the same way that it always did. The students tucked up in their beds on the girls part. Sitting atop their covers eating Berty Bott's every flavour beans on the boys.

Another term at Hogwarts was upon them and all of them were rearing to go.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

**And so the classes begin…**

The first few days passed without incident. By which I mean Lily avoided James like he was the plague. Of course her cat hadn't made it easy, Lily had taken to just letting Buttons wander because she didn't want to go talk to James while recapturing her.

It was the first day of classes again and Lily was really excited, she had been reading all of her new school books nonstop since their purchase and she probably knew a lot more than most of her peers by that point.

"I can't believe we'll be starting off every week with double History of Magic." Maggie said. "I can never stay awake, by the time we get to Transfiguration; I am literally going to be a zombie."

Lily laughed, "How can you take notes if you're sleeping."

"I can't take notes even then." Maggie said and Mary nodded.

"Yeah, you are the only one I know who manages to stay awake through Binns' drawl." Mary observed.

Lily shook her head, "No, it's that nobody else bothers to try and stay awake."

They walked from breakfast in the great hall to History of Magic together. Most of the class was already there, well minus the four boys Lily had come to know and hate. Well, except for Remus who Lily felt very sorry for. She had concluded something about Remus since the term had started, she thought of all the times he'd been visiting his sick mother had been a full moon. He was sickly close to the full moon and Lily had her suspicions, you might be able to guess what they were.

Anyway when they arrived and Professor Binns let them into the classroom, everyone groaned in unison as they saw the words, GIANT WARS, written on the blackboard.

"Welcome to second year, this year we will be looking at the Giant Wars of Independence." He said, "Now, you will need to take extensive notes this year as everything is –"

"Sorry we're late professor." James said bursting through the door, Peter, Remus and Sirius followed close behind him.

"Very well, take a seat Porter, Pettergrow, Brown, Loopy." He said. Everyone sniggered, his guesses at students last names had become more and more off the mark. He barely remembered the letter they started with any more. "As I was saying, everything is relevant."

James groaned and barely two minutes after they had entered the room, Sirius pushed a piece of parchment in front of him. They were at the back right of the classroom, they shared a desk.

**Sirius: Kill me. NOW!**

**James: But then who will amuse me? Ha ha.**

**Sirius: True, I am pretty awesome, how are we going to pass this class this year. After all…EVERYTHING IS RELEVANT. **

**James: I don't know, Remus might be immune to Binns.**

Both of them looked up at Remus who had his head resting in his hands, his eyelids fluttering closed and then flying open every few seconds.

**Sirius: Who else?**

**James: If Evans didn't hate me then maybe she'd lend us her notes, look, she's actually taking notes.**

**Sirius: Yeah, maybe we should get Remus to ask. They get on OK.**

**James: Really. I didn't know that.**

**Sirius: Jealous Jamie-boy?**

**James: No, just didn't know that. Why would I be jealous?**

**Sirius: Because you like Evans. **

**James: I do not, she's a stuck up little know it all. **

**Sirius: If you say so. Maybe we should pay attention. **

**James: No, we'll think of something. **

**Sirius: Fair enough. **

**James: I can't wait until next year, we get to pick what we want and visit Hogsmeade, go to Zonko's. **

**Sirius: Agreed. **

Across the room, Maggie and Mary sat. Maggie at the desk in the back left corner, Mary sat beside her at the double desk and Lily sat in front of them, alone, as there was an odd number of students in their class.

**Maggie: Do you think we should try to take notes.**

**Mary: I can't, I tried for a whole year last year, it doesn't work. It just makes my head hurt. **

**Maggie: True, at least we have transfiguration next, McGonagall will give Lily a lot of housepoints. **

**Mary: Yeah, Gryffindor's in second. **

**Maggie: Who's first anyway?**

**Mary: Hufflepuff, I think. **

**Maggie: Really, who knew? **

**Mary: They're just as smart as anyone else. **

**Maggie: I guess so. **

**Mary: I really wish you'd be nicer to people, there might be a reason that it's always the three of us talking to each other, maybe we should try and befriend a few new people this year. **

**Maggie: Yeah, but not Catrin Hanson, she's just so…**

**Mary: You don't have to finish that. **

**Maggie: Good, I know you don't really like swear words. **

**Mary: It's times like this that I am really happy that Lily's our friend and the only one able to stay awake during Binns' lectures. **

**Maggie: I know, right. That and she takes amazing colour coded notes. **

**Mary: Why is it important that they're colour coded?**

**Maggie: Because it's easier to study if it's pretty. Duh!**

**Mary: What do we have after Transfiguration?**

**Maggie: Potions. **

**Mary: Awww**

**Maggie: I know, but maybe this year me and Lil won't get stuck with tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber over there. **

**Mary: Yeah, there were some very literally explosive accidents last year. **

**Maggie: I just hope Lily keeps her cool better this year. **

**Mary: I don't know, I know she swears against it but I sometimes wonder if redheads do have bad tempers. **

**Maggie: Don't say that to her. She hates stereotypes.**

**Mary: I know.**

**Maggie: Good, I don't want us to fight. **

**Mary: We got through a whole year without fighting last year. **

**Maggie: True, but you've got to wonder how we actually managed that. **

**Mary: Because we're so great, other than that, we are amazing. **

**Maggie: Maybe we should stop writing, Binns is getting suspicious, we never write in this class. **

**Mary: Agreed. **

**Maggie: Wake me if I start drooling. **

**Mary: Likewise. **

They stopped noting at that point and started trying to listen to the lecture, Lily had covered three pieces of parchment front and back by the end of the class.

"Did you take good notes?" Maggie asked.

"Yes, and yes you can borrow them." Lily said.

Maggie put her arm around Lily, "You know me so well."

"Yes, yes I do."

Mary giggled, "Maggie, you have no shame."

"No, it just slows me down." She said. Her friends laughed.

After their first day of classes everyone was slumped in chairs in their respective common rooms and Lily was no different, James, Peter and Sirius sat in the overstuffed armchairs by the fire.

Lily was surprised that Remus wasn't with them, he was always with them and it wasn't…near any time that Lily thought would _affect_ him.

Mary and Maggie were sitting discussing their potions essays.

"I'm going to head to the library," Lily said, "There's a book that I remember reading about the properties of Moonstones. I'll be right back." She said, climbing out of the portrait hole. She stopped dead in her tracks outside, Remus was sitting just underneath the portrait hole, his knees pulled up to his chest with his arms wrapped around them.

"Hey, Remus, are you OK?" Lily asked putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, thanks Lily, I'm fine." Remus said smiling gratefully as he straightened up again.

Lily felt a little reluctant to ask the next thing but she knew she had to, if only to satisfy her own conclusion, "Remus…" she paused and Remus looked at her expectantly, "Are you…a…werewolf?"

What little colour there had been in his face drained and he stood speechless for a few minutes. Lily cut in before he could say anything.

"Look, I'm not going to tell anybody, but if you ever want to talk to anybody, you can talk to me."

He sighed, "I guess, I couldn't avoid somebody finding out forever."

Lily laughed, "Hey, it took me a year to notice."

"Well, if it took you a year to notice, then I don't suppose anyone else will find out." Remus joked, "I mean you're really smart."

"I'm not going to tell anyone, so don't worry about it." Lily assured him, "I'm going to go to the library so that I can get a book to finish my potions essay. I'll see you later." She said, waving as she left him alone in the ancient stone hallway.

Remus chuckled to himself as she left; trust Lily Evans to be the one to treat his, _condition_, with such nonchalance.

Although it made him worry, if Lily knew, his friends couldn't be much further behind with their conclusions.

He got up and dusted his hands off as he gave the Fat Lady the password and joined his friends in the common room, the weight on his mind slightly less. He felt happy just to sit and joke with his friends about teachers and help them with their homework as he always did.

Lily let her index finger travel along the dusty spines of the books until it landed on the one she was seeking. She pulled it out and proceeded to Madame Pince's desk. She set the book up and Madame Pince appeared with her sharp features and hawk-like eyes.

Lily was glad she had asked Remus, she knew that she would be right but she felt like it would be less of a burden on his part if perhaps he knew that somebody else knew and didn't judge him for it, after all, it wasn't actually his fault, it was somebody else's another werewolf and that could go back to the first werewolf there had ever been.

As she walked along the stone lined hallways her mind wandered, his parents certainly supported him, as did, of course, Professor Dumbledore and the staff and it certainly hadn't changed her perception of him in the slightest. He was still the same old mild-mannered, clever, soft-spoke Remus. Nothing would change that to Lily anyway. She meant what she had said, she wouldn't tell anybody, she did understand but not everybody would have reacted the way that she had, and she knew this.

One thing kept her from telling Maggie and Mary and that was the simple feeling that…it wasn't her secret to share.

She returned to the common room, Remus smiled at her as she came in and she smiled back at him. James eyes darted between the two of them, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Lily sat down where she had been for the last few hours previous to her trip to the library and began reading through Maggie's essay for her, it was like nothing had changed, like the summer holidays hadn't actually happened and they'd never parted. It was nice, Lily had spent a lot of the holidays with Severus and she missed him but otherwise all her friends were there with her and she was ready for another year of magic. Literally.

**Read & Review Please **


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

**Swimming…well…sort of.**

It never ceased to amaze Lily how fast time went at Hogwarts, it was always such a good time that she never noticed how the months would slip by. Other than the minor annoyance that was James Potter she could hardly complain about the new life she had found there. She didn't write home anymore and they didn't write to her, not that Lily had been expecting Petunia to keep up correspondence anyway. She had hoped that perhaps her mother might but she had left that hope behind by this point.

Lily could think of a million reasons she loved Hogwarts of the top of her head.

She had found a new friend in Remus lately, they would study together in the library sometimes if Remus couldn't be bothered trying to get James, Sirius and Peter to do their homework and when Lily's friends could not be found. Remus was enjoying his second year much more than his first, not so much lying, not as much anxiety eating him up inside. He was still keeping his lycanthropy a secret from his friends but he knew when he was with Lily that he didn't have to hide anything. Since the revelation that she knew, he had told her a lot of things about it. How agonising the transformations were and how Professor Dumbledore had treated him as if he was any other student when his parents approached him about allowing Remus to be schooled at Hogwarts.

Lily knew that the Whomping Willow had been a new addition for their first year but she hadn't realised why.

Remus said that every month before his transformations a teacher of Madam Pomfrey would escort him out of the castle across the grounds out to the Whomping Willow where there was a secret tunnel to a house near Hogsmeade Village. Hogsmeade was the all wizarding town close by the school.

Lily was quite supportive, her friends noticed that she and Remus had become good friends, they were glad, in fact they wanted to get to know him better as well. This is how, one Saturday afternoon, the three girls and Remus came to be sitting outside by the lake, it was late October and oddly sunny outside. The girls had decided to take this opportunity to go and sit by the lake because they wouldn't have many fine days like this left and often it was when they were sitting inside a classroom, looking longingly out of the windows.

Remus had decided to join them, glad to be included. He could never have hoped to make so many friends when he left his home on September 1st a little over a year before.

"Lil, how is your note taking in magical history?" Maggie asked, trying to be nonchalant. Lily laughed loudly,

"Subtle Mags," she said pulling out a thick stack of paper from her bag. She divided them, "I made a copy for you," she handed one copy to Mags, "and one for you and one for you." She gave one to both Mary and to Remus.

Remus looked surprised, "Why…" he stretched the word out, adding syllables because of his confusion.

"Oh please, Remus, I know you study a lot but the drool is a dead give away in class that you are actually sleeping, just like the rest of the class."

Remus grinned, "Colour coding and footnotes," he said, chuckling, "How professional."

Lily narrows her eyes, "I could always take it back." She said.

Remus clutched it firmly in his hands, "No, no, they were a gift." He said. Just as his hands relaxed their tight grip it was pulled from his fingers by somebody from above.

"Hey Remus." James Potter said sitting down beside him, "We saw you from the common room." He said in explanation.

Sirius sat on his other side and Peter stood, awkwardly hovering. Maggie and Mary both eyed Lily to see her reaction to their uninvited guest.

"Ditching us now are you?" Sirius asked eyeing the girls.

"Nope, just branching out, making friends, you might want to try it." Remus said.

"OK then," he leant over to his left sticking a hand in front of Maggie. "I'm Sirius."

"About what?" Maggie asked. Sirius withdrew his hand, "Funny, funny, and your name is?"

"Maggie Bell." She said tucking her hair behind her ears to keep it from blowing into her eyes.

Sirius eyed Mary who quietly added, "Mary MacDonald."

Lily laughed without humour, "You sat with us on the train, did you not know any of us?" She asked him.

"Of course we knew you Lily Evans, from our various encounters last year but I'm afraid the others names did slip my mind over the holidays." Sirius admitted with a shrug.

James nodded, "See your hair is just _so_ red it is impossible to forget you and your temper."

Wary glances were exchanged. Lily sprang to her feet, wanting to make a dramatic exit but before she could get her bag, she caught her foot on a plant at the waters edge and, well. I think we could all have guessed what happened next. The splash was quite impressive as Lily disappeared beneath the water. Mary and Maggie jumped up, James and Sirius began laughing uncontrollably, leaning on either side of Remus for support so as to not fall over.

Lily's head popped up out of the water. Coughing and spluttering, she tried to gain footing in the shallow end of the lake's floor. She pushed herself up. A cool breeze swept by them and she began to shiver.

"Nice one Evans." James commented through laughing fits.

Lily didn't hear him as she grabbed her bag and legged it up the slope of grass to the castle.

Mary and Maggie stood still, exchanging looks, suppressing smiles as they followed her up the slope.

Remus groaned, "Why do you always have to do that?!"

"She just makes it so easy." James said shrugging, "It's the temptation."

Sirius looked thoughtful, "Do you think if we died her hair, she'd have such a bad temper."

James's eyes lit up, "Interesting question Sirius, interesting question."

Sirius grinned menacingly, "If you will excuse us gentlemen, Jamsie and I have some planning to do."

Remus groaned again as his two friends ascended the slope that moments before a soaking wet Lily Evans had.

Peter sat beside Remus who still held the notes that had been given to him.

Lily had changed out of her clothes and into her pyjamas by the time Mary and Maggie got back to their room, she wore her thick winter pyjamas and was sipping something that looked like hot chocolate. Her soaking wet hair had been pulled up out of her eyes and piled on the top of her head. It was the middle of the afternoon still.

"Hey Lil." Mary said softly.

Lily remained straight faced, as the two girls sat on either side of her bed.

"You OK?" Maggie asked.

"I'm fine." Lily said, she didn't sound it. "I think I might have gotten a cold."

"Potter's an idiot you know that, right?" Maggie asked.

"Of course," she said, in reality she was nursing her wounded pride.

"Well then, are you going to change and come down for dinner?" Mary asked happily.

"No, I'm not hungry, you guys go, I'll see you when you get back." She said trying to smile.

Sometimes she wished she didn't have such a bad temper, or that she wasn't so proud at times. Especially on that afternoon in October.

"Is there a charm or something that could do it, because I think Evans might notice us holding her head over a sink." James said.

Sirius laughed, "If there is one, we will find it before tomorrow."

"True enough." James said. "So, do we stake out the common room all morning or can we find a way into the girl's dormitories?"

"No, the founders considered boys untrustworthy, if we try to climb the stairs, it turns into a slide."

"How do you know that?"

"My cousin told me."

"Oh right, well, I thinks staking out the common room is probably our only option then."

"Yeah, do you think we could get Peter to do it?"

"Yeah, I think so. What if we wake up later than her and she isn't there?"

"I'd say go to the library and hide behind a bookcase until she turns up there."

"Oh yeah, sorry, wasn't thinking."

"Do you think Remus will help us look?"

"No, they're friends now, he would probably warn her rather than help us."

"Damn him and his friendly nature!" Sirius shouted with fake passion.

James elbowed Sirius, "Ha, ha, ha, very funny. I'd better find a way to do this if you want to go have some dinner."

"Oh you're just always thinking of me." Sirius said holding his hands over his heart, "I'll be back soon." He clapped James on the back as he passed and disappeared out the door and down the stairs.

James sighed, grabbed a couple of the books they'd gotten from the library that afternoon and took them down the stairs to the common room where he sat in one of the big overstuffed armchairs in front of the fire.

The weather outside was disappointing; it signalled the turning of the weather that year, the sun was seen rarely after that. The rain pattered down on the windows with dull thudding sounds.

"I think she's just upset." James heard Mary MacDonald say.

"Well I suppose and she hasn't heard from her family since she got back to school." Maggie added.

"Yes, well maybe she'll feel better tomorrow, she could just be embarrassed, I know I wouldn't like to humiliate myself in front of James Potter, he'll never let it go." Mary said as they climbed out of the portrait hole.

Suddenly James felt bad about what he and his best mate were up to, he quickly pushed that thought aside and continued thumbing through the pages of yet another thick volume.

_Pilos – Dyes the hair, add additional colour to complete spell._

So, pick a colour, any colour.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

"Ah!"

Lily Evans was not happy, she was down right furious.

Her bright red hair that had become…well, purple and Lily was absolutely horrified. It looked wrong, unnatural that her hair should be such a dark purple. It was almost black.

"It's not that bad." Maggie said.

Mary has her lips pursed, she isn't saying anything, mostly because she didn't want to say the wrong thing.

Lily marched up the stairs to the dormitories and knocked on James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew's door.

Remus answered, his hair messed up, his eyes sleepy and his tie half way put on around his neck. "Hey Lily." He said, then his eyes grew wide and he asked, "What happened to your hair?"

"James Potter and Sirius Black," Lily said simply.

Remus groaned, "James!" He shouted behind him.

"May I help you?" James said appearing at Remus's shoulder, looking rather smug.

"Turn my hair back." Lily growled at him.

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about." Sirius said appearing behind his friends.

"I will kill you!" Lily shouted and lunged for James. Remus held her back and pushed her in front of him down the stairs to the common room where everyone was staring up at the boys dormitories.

Remus groans, "Look, I'll find out what they used, get them to reverse it, calm down and don't give them the satisfaction or they'll just keep going longer."

Lily laughed without humour, "Tell him I hate him." Lily said gritting her teeth and disappearing out of the portrait hole.

It was Wednesday, October 31st and as Lily ate her breakfast she could feel all eyes on her. She was so frustrated she could cry.

Maggie and Mary slid into the seats either side of her.

"I love your hair, Lily." Catrin Hanson commented as she passed the Gryffindor table to go sit with her fellow Ravenclaws.

Lily folded her arms on the table and pressed her face down into them, barely suppressing tears.

Maggie nudged her and Lily shook her head vigorously into her arms.

"Lily, its fine," Mary said brightly.

Lily sat up properly and looked at her, "How?" She asked.

Mary weakly pointed at her hair and Lily looked at it, red, very red. James Potter sauntered to the Gryffindor table and sat down with his friends flanking him.

"I have never been so happy to be a red head." Lily proclaimed grinning at her friends. She pushed her breakfast dishes forward. Threw her bag across her shoulder and vacated her seat. Throwing a glare over her shoulders at the group of four boys she walked to her first class, Herbology. Mary and Maggie at their breakfast slowly and found Lily already standing outside greenhouse 2's door twenty minutes later, nose in a thick book.

"Hey, Lil." Mary said sidling up beside her, looking over her shoulder into the book.

"Hey." Lily said.

"What's up?" Maggie asked.

Lily shrugged, "Getting so mad early in the morning tires me out."

Mary laughed, "Well, I think that you're funny."

Lily looked annoyed, "Why?"

"Because he annoys you so much, it's funny." Maggie said.

"It's not funny, it's ridiculously infuriating." Lily said which only made them laugh harder.

"What's so funny?" Remus asked on arriving.

The girls doubled over as James showed up, "Nothing." Maggie choked out between hysterics.

"What's so funny?" James asked, as his friend had.

Lily groaned, "None of your concern, Potter." She snapped at him.

That only made Maggie and Mary laugh harder, now, didn't it?

Much to Lily's relief at that point Professor Sprout opened the green house door and ushered them in. They were pruning Abyssinian Shrivelfigs which kept both their minds and their hands busy for the hours following.

When they'd vacated the greenhouse and walked to their potions class, Maggie and Mary just burst into fits of giggles again at how cross Lily was with them.

The four boys were at a loss, they had no idea what was so funny, and in the following years they would get no better at dealing with girls. Then, does any man, whether they are a wizard or a muggle?

Professor Slughorn had them making a sleeping draught that lesson and it was so complicated that Lily had her eyebrows knitted together the whole lesson in concentration.

Maggie and Mary started a fire and they all got to leave class early because of that.

They were still highly amused with the world and themselves when it came to be lunchtime and they all sat down to eat at Gryffindor table.

"Well, what's next?" Mary asked tucking into her sandwiches.

"Charms then History of Magic." Lily stated as she ate a spoonful of tomato soup.

Sirius sat down across from the three girls, "Good," he said, "I'll be able to relocate my nap to the dormitory after we get out of class." He grinned, looking very pleased with his plans.

"You're going to fail the exam." Lily said, "If you don't stay awake during the lessons."

"Why should I stay awake when I can just borrow Remus's notes?" He asked, yawning to make his point.

Lily shrugged at him and continued to eat ignoring them.

"What are you girls up to this evening?" James asked them.

"Homework." Lily said while Mary and Maggie said in unison,

"I don't know."

James grinned, "Priorities, Evans?" He asked mockingly.

She nodded missing the mocking tone.

"We're going to visit Hagrid." Remus said smiling.

Lily looked up, "Who's Hagrid?" She asked.

James and Sirius looked awestruck, "You mean you've never met Hagrid?" Sirius asked.

"No." Maggie, Mary and Lily say in unison.

"Forget the homework you're coming with us later." Remus proclaimed, "Trust me Lily. Hagrid is great."  
Lily nodded slowly, "Fine." She agreed.

That evening, after one of the more uneventful Halloween feasts Hogwarts would see and of course once Sirius had awakened from his nap, they all got their hats, scarves, coats and gloves on they all stood in the middle of their room.

"Let's go get the girls," James said.

They were waiting by the portrait hole in the common room.

"Follow me." Sirius said bounding ahead the group.

The girls had seen the old hut before, seen how it stood solitary on the grounds.

"Who is Hagrid, exactly?" Mary asked Remus walking down the slope.

"He's the Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." Remus said, "That's the official title."

They arrived and James rapped three times on the door.

The man who answered was tall, very tall, unnaturally tall, inhumanly tall actually.

"Hello." Hagrid boomed. "James an' Sirius an' Peter an' Remus." He grinned. He had bushy black hair and an equally bushy beard. "An' who's this?" He asked beaming down at the three girls.

James took the reins. "Hagrid, this is Lily Evans, Mary MacDonald and Maggie Bell."

Hagrid smiled, "Nice to meet yer."

Lily smiled unsure, "You too."

Mary and Maggie each smiled and said, "Hi."

Hagrid was just as great as had been conveyed to them all and they sat and drank tea, warmed by the massive fire roaring in the corner. It was a truly enjoyable evening and the first time Lily could remember being in a room with James Potter so long without it resulting in a fight. That was nice, only because she hated to fight, even if it was with James Potter.

Hagrid was a nice person and as Lily learned a half giant which she found to be entirely fascinating.

"It was lovely to meet yer all." Hagrid said as they bundled themselves up again. It was almost nine and then they locked the castle doors, so the seven students hurried back up the slope toward the castle.

Lily waved back at Hagrid over her shoulder. She liked him, he was nice, a gruff man who was oddly gentle. Talking about his old dog that slept in the corner the hours they were there. He was an odd character, he reminded Lily of her grandfather at times during the evening.

"Did you like him?" Sirius asked.

All of the girls nodded, "How did you lot meet him?" Mary asked.

"He found us near the forbidden forest about three weeks into first year and he didn't tell on us to McGonagall, which is the foundation of a good friendship." James said with a sly grin, he pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. He wasn't a bad looking boy, by a lot of standards he was very good looking, as were Sirius and Remus, but the same could not be said of Peter, he was an extremely homely boy, grubby skin and rat-like watery eyes and thin, dull brown hair. "Anyway, we've been visiting him ever since and he's just a right good bloke." James summed up the giant man perfectly in three words.

They walked back to the castle swiftly and got in just before Filch skulked down the stairs, eyeing them as he passed and locking the doors with a loud click.

They all climbed through the portrait hole.

Sirius dipped into a low bow, "It's been lovely, ladies." He said as the girls ascended the dormitory staircase.

"Night." Maggie said grinning.

"See you in the morning." Mary called over her shoulder.

Lily responded with a simple, "Dye my hair again, Potter and I will kill you, slowly and painfully."

James let out a hearty guffaw and all of them climbed up to their dorm and fell into their beds, sleeping soundly.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Christmas Once More**

The time always went far to fast in Lily's view. She was once more staying at Hogwarts, Gran was going to visit the Evan's house for Christmas and this year the excuse to Lily was, _We still haven't told Gran but we'll tell her very soon_ and the excuse to Lily's Gran was, _We couldn't afford the travel fee for Lily to come home for the holiday._

Lily was happy that Mary was staying at school this year, she actually wanted for a quiet Christmas and decided that she would stay and spend the holidays with friends instead of hyperactive younger sisters and annoying older brothers and nagging mothers and work obsessed fathers.

On Christmas Eve Lily and Mary were sitting in the chairs by the fire talking and laughing about nothing in particular, the things that friends talk about. You don't need to talk about anything important or anything funny because if you have really great enough friends you could have a good time talking about dental surgery.

They were laughing deliriously when the boy's dormitory door opened and thundering footsteps came down the stairs. Boyish laughter and joking and guffaws filled the almost empty common room.

"What's so funny?" Sirius asked jumping down the last few stairs and perching himself on the edge of Mary's seat.

Lily looked up at him, unimpressed, "Nothing to concern you." She said coldly.

"So cold Evans, you hurt me." He said dramatically collapsing to the floor his hands clutched over his heart. In spite of herself Lily smiled and Mary giggled.

James grinned and his glasses slipped down his nose. "Staying for Christmas?"

"Yes." Mary and Lily said in unison.

"Us too." James said.

"Where's Remus and Peter?" Mary wanted to know.

"Remus had to go home for Christmas because his mum's still ill and Peter's parents wanted him home for Christmas." Sirius said.

"What about your mum?" Mary asked Sirius.

"She couldn't care less." Sirius said.

"And my dad and mum have to work over the holidays anyway, it's easier for them if I just stay here." James said with a shrug. His mouth pressed in a hard straight line.

Sirius relocated from the floor to a chair and James sat on the arm, his feet just touching the ground.

"Why aren't you gals going home for Christmas?" James asked.

Mary shrugged, "I just wanted a quiet Christmas and I have three brothers and three sisters."

"Just wanted to stay at Hogwarts is all." Lily said, keeping the real reason to herself.

"Do you guys want to come visit Hagrid with us later?" Sirius asked.

Mary said, "Yes," at the same time as Lily said, "No."

Mary looked at Lily, "Why not?"

"Because I was going to go write a letter to Maggie," Lily said. "But, Mary you go, I'll see you later. Merry Christmas," Lily said and began to walk up the stairs to the girl's dormitories as the others climbed out of the portrait hole.

Lily wrote a very long letter to Maggie that night as Mary, Sirius and James chatted merrily by Hagrid's fire sipping hot chocolate.

Mary got back just after nine but Lily as already fast asleep. She fell into bed once she'd pulled her pyjamas on.

"Lily, wake up!" Mary shouted jumping up and down on her best friend's bed.

A disgruntled Lily scrunched her eyes closed, "No!" Lily shouted.

"But it's Christmas!" Mary shouted.

Lily opened her eyes, "Fine!" She shouted throwing back the sheets as Mary landed gracefully on the floor.

Mary hopped back on her own bed and began opening her presents. Lily's pile was considerably smaller, what with Mary being from a big family and Lily from a small family.

Lily got clothes from her parents, a thick spell book from Mary and Maggie and a necklace, supposedly from her sister. Because that was highly likely, that Petunia would take time to pick out a present for her freak sister.

The better part of the morning was spent in their room, they just looked at their presents and talking about how much fun Christmas dinner would be.

The numbers that year were much the same as the last, the professors and a few students.

They wore ridiculous hats that came from their crackers and ate delicious turkey and gravy and potatoes and all of the other fixings that came with Christmas dinner at Hogwarts. The house elves always pulled out the extra stops at Christmas because there was usually so few to cook for compared to the hundreds they cooked for every day.

There were no speeches, no formalities the staff were mixed with the students and everyone chatted.

Christmas at Hogwarts was truly magical, excuse the pun and Lily felt like Christmas there was so much more eventful and fun and filled with laughter than any she had ever had at home.

_**Sorry about the shortness of chapters lately, I just have such big plans for later chapters that I want to get through these ones quickly. **____** Read & Review, if you feel like it. **_

_**Promise longer chapters in the later years (namely 3**__**rd**__**/4**__**th**__** year – 7**__**th**__** year)**_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

**The end again**

Lily had barely spoken to Severus all year, they didn't even glance in each other's directions anymore.

They spoke in Summer.

They spoke in the library.

But that was virtually it, it bothered Lily more than Severus. He was too busy with his new friends and they couldn't pretend that they hadn't been growing apart as friends for a while now, even at the tender age of 12. Lily and James were clashing less and less but were nowhere near becoming friends, they tolerated each other, they weren't even civil to each other, they were just, part of the landscape to each other, they ignored each other. Lily still got irritated by virtually everything he did but she didn't bother voicing her opinions on it nearly as much anymore.

They didn't like to fall out, especially since Lily and the girls had become so friendly with Hagrid. Hagrid had taken to the three girls, finding them funny and ridiculous at times.

Months passed in the same patterns, doing homework, visiting Hagrid, sitting by the lake in the light evenings.

The teachers supplied them with more and more homework as the exams neared and Lily urged her friends to study, she gave them copies of her notes for subjects in the hopes that they would and most of the time Mary and Maggie and Remus did. Sirius was another matter entirely and she didn't care enough to try and make James study, she found the idea kind of ludicrous.

The exams passed one by one, History of Magic was difficult for most people, minus Lily. Then again Lily got out of her last exam of the whole year and commented to Maggie,

"I've heard that Defence against the Dark Arts is supposed to be really difficult but I found that to be rather enjoyable."

Maggie rolled her eyes so far that she thought her eyes were going to fall out of her head. "Shut up!" She said.

Lily grinned. "Fine," she said, "But I was actually quite happy up until now."  
Maggie frowned, "Sorry, I just think I failed."

Lily linked her arm through Maggie's, "Don't be silly, you thought the exact same thing last year when we left all of our exams."

Mary rushed after them, "Guys, wait up!"

She catapulted herself in between her two best friends and linked her arms through theirs. "How did that go for you guys."

Lily said, "Good."

Maggie said, "Bad." And Mary laughed.

"In the middle, as per usual," Mary said laughing, "Ah, predictability."

Lily grinned.

"Who the hell even needs exams anyway!" Sirius yelled as they walked back up to their room, "Who cares?! Not me!" Sirius became serious on very few occasions, mostly because that was almost his name. He was actually quite clever, he just never thought of himself as such. James was so clever, he often felt he paled in comparison, not nearly as much as Peter. Peter was in comparison and by nature, a bit dim-witted. Remus was very clever, very, very clever, but he did work for it.

The four boys walked to their beds and sat down. It was that day and at that time, that James, Sirius and Peter decided that they would tell Remus Lupin that they knew what his problem was, they knew what he did every month, where he went. They knew that his mum was really fine, that he was really a wolf. Lily had been aware of what she called Remus's _problem_ for months, since the beginning of the school year. She knew, she supported him and she kept it a secret, she had been wanting to tell someone for those months but she had promised.

"Remus." Sirius said very slowly and carefully without adding anything else.

"Sirius," Remus said sounding quite amused, "What is it?"

"Well, we know." Peter said.

Remus paled, "What do you mean?" He asked in a quiet voice.

"Remus, shut up, we know, you are a werewolf." James said.

Remus if possible got even paler, "I'm not, I'm–"

James held up his hand and stopped him mid sentence, "Look, we don't care, you are our friend and this doesn't change anything. We just want to know," James said, "Where do you go every month?"

Remus looked at them, "You don't care!" He bellowed, "You don't care that I'm a monster, I'm a wolf, I'm a beast, I could kill you, kill anybody that I come into contact with. Do you know how hard it is to know that is what you are and that is what you can do and you can't do anything to change it?" He knotted his hands in his hair, needing to feel pain.

"Remus, we know you can't change it," Sirius said, "You aren't responsible for what happened to you."

"I know, it's his fault." Remus said gritting his teeth.

James's eyebrows knitted together in confusion and worry, they had never seen Remus anything less than completely and utterly composed. "Remus, whose fault?"

"Greyback." He growled. "Fenrir Greyback, my dad told me when I got back last month, he was angry with my dad and he meant to bite me, he meant to punish my dad by turning me into _this_." He sounded so disgusted with himself.

Peter stayed silent, Sirius sat down beside Remus, "Remus I know more than anybody that you can't choose your life, you just have to focus less on the bad things and more on the good things, the people you surround yourself with, and you, my fine friend have got us, me and James and Peter. Your mum and dad, we all think you're great and your parents don't care that you are a werewolf."

Remus looked at him, red eyes, "Sirius, do you really still want to be my friend?"

James, Peter and Sirius screamed, "Yes!" At the same time, Remus let out an exhausted laugh.

"I go to a house on the outskirts of Hogsmeade." Remus said.

James grinned, "A house, really?"

Remus nodded, "Madame Pomfrey or McGonagall come to get me and they take me down the slope to the Whomping Willow, you press the knot in the trunk and a door opens and you go in and along a tunnel to that house over the fence across from the Three Broomsticks."

"I was hoping that there was some way around the apparition rule in Hogwarts or some sort of invisibility serum and a secret room in Hogwarts." Sirius said.

Remus laughed, "Nope, not at all." He put his hands behind his head and fell back. "God, this is such a relief. I had nobody to talk to about this, well except Lily and we never really see each other outside of class anymore, so it's hard to–"

James cut him off, "Evans, you told Evans before us, you weren't even going to tell us, we just knew." James said.

"I didn't tell her she just knew." Remus said, "She asked me about it in September."

"That's why you got to be so friendly then." Peter said.

"Yeah, it was just nice to have somebody that knew, even if we don't talk very often." Remus said, "But I'm really, really glad that you know."

James smiled, "Well we're glad too I'm sure."

"I didn't know how to tell you." Remus said, "It's such a hard thing to bring up."

James nodded, "I don't really know how you would have done it so that we would have believed you."

"I couldn't have." Remus said with a chuckle.

"Well, we have some things to talk about Remy boy." Sirius said. "So, let's get chatting."

"I don't want to go home, Petunia's such a git." Lily complained, "Even when I'm nice to her and she has such horrid friends. They are awful."

"I'll write every day but mum and dad are taking me to France." Maggie said, "I love you, but, France."

Mary smiled, "And you honestly wouldn't want to spend your summer at my house."

"Its fine, but you promise me, you write to me every day." Lily said.

They were walking along the narrow corridor on the Hogwarts express walking into an empty compartment and stowing there things away and sitting down.

"Of course," Maggie said.

"Definitely," Mary agreed.

"At least I can talk to Severus." Lily said.

Maggie and Mary stopped for a second. Then they nodded, they had never liked Severus, he had such awful friends and such an untrustworthy face. They really did not like him.

"I guess so." Mary said quietly.

At that precise moment to stop a conflict between friends the kindly lady with the trolley arrived and asked them if they wanted anything. They did, they got some Berty Bott's Every Flavoured Beans. They spent the rest of that train ride became quite hilarious as they all tried the most ridiculous flavours. They parted ways as they had done the year previous and would do for a long time to come.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Third Year Begins**

Lily Evans got older over the summer, she got taller, she got new clothes, she started shopping in the woman's section. She had to go to Diagon Alley to get new school uniform and new books and new school supplies. She cut her hair short; to her shoulder, so much different than the waist length it had been for the past few years. She got makeup and Buttons a new collar. She spent a hell of a lot of time that summer with her cat, hoping that when they got back to Hogwarts the cat would avoid James Potter which would help her to avoid him. She had barely seen the cat all year, in fact by the time she returned meowing to her on the last day at Hogwarts she had grown a lot.

Lily hoped to see more of her this year; she really did love that cat. Her parents took her and Severus to the train station for their third year. Severus's parents, for lack of a better term, didn't give a crap. Her parents still hadn't told her Gran and it was looking like another Christmas at Hogwarts for Lily Evans.

"What are you taking this year?" Severus asked, leaning against the window in their compartment.

Lily thought about it, "Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts, Potions, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Transfiguration, Astronomy, History of Magic, Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures."

"Wow, that's a lot." He said, "I probably won't see you much this year."

Lily shook her head, "Sure you will." She said trying to make him feel better; however, he was probably right. It was unlikely that Maggie and Mary would want to share her with somebody that they didn't even like and Lily knew in spite of what they said that they really didn't like him.

Mary and Maggie rushed into the compartment squealing and Severus looking very uncomfortable managed a, "See you later," and snuck out of the compartment to go sit with his Slytherin friends.

"You look so different." Maggie exclaimed.

"You too," Lily said, "And Mary."

"I love your hair," Mary said twisting a strand of her hair and watching it bounce back into a ringlet.

"Thanks, mum doesn't like it; she thinks I ruined my hair." Lily said rolling her eyes dramatically.

"I like it, you seem taller." Maggie said, "It's as though you're only half a head shorter than me instead of a whole head."

"I did get taller." I said with a shrug, "Mary is definitely taller than last year."

Mary blushed, "I look the same. I haven't cut my hair."

"No but you definitely look older." Maggie said putting an arm around Mary's shoulders. All of the girls had definitely matured since their second year. They were all 13, in their teens and ready to rock.

They spent the train ride talking excitedly about how things were going to be that year. Lily told them about the last few days of the holiday when she hadn't had time to right them letters. They had been exchanging very lengthy letters since they got back to their homes over the holidays or gone on their respective trips to foreign countries.

The same had been going on with James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. Especially Sirius and James, they had some very elaborately planned pranks for their third year. Sirius complained about everything except for his favourite cousin Andromeda visiting, she had just left Hogwarts, she was a Hufflepuff. She had been stricken from the Black Family tree; Sirius met her in Diagon Alley. It was the best time her had since his mum and dad were so ashamed of his status as a Gryffindor. They talked about James trying out for the Gryffindor quidditch team that year. Sirius had decided he would be the cheering section because neither of them had any doubts about his getting on to the team. He would be a Chaser and they were sure of it.

In spite of their plans the previous year, Maggie, Mary and Lily had been to none of the quidditch matches, they just never felt like it. Honestly Lily just didn't like muggle sports that much and just didn't think that she would enjoy wizarding sports. Maggie was seriously insisting on them going that year, being avid sporting fans. Mary had never been very into it but because of her brothers she knew teams and rules and stats on who would win and who would come in second, etc. etc.

"Did you have a good holiday?" James asked sliding into the seats across from Lily, Maggie and Mary.

Mary grinned, "Yes."

Maggie nodded, "France was awesome."

Sirius shook his head, "But I wasn't there, how could it be awesome."

Maggie chuckled without humour, "It was awesome, precisely because you weren't there."

James laughed, "That's you told."

Sirius nodded, "I'm wounded." He clutched his hands over his heart and made a show of collapsing on to James's shoulder.

Lily laughed, alerting James to the fact she was there, "Evans, I like your hair."

Sirius laughed, "Manly, James. Real manly," he was in stitches.

"Thanks Potter." Lily said, "You should leave yours alone." Lily commented, James paused with his hand halfway to his hair and the group of third years laughed.

"Nice Evans," James said, "I really appreciate that advice." He laughed sarcastically before messing about his hair. Sirius laughed,

"He could be a model." He said jokingly.

Lily laughed, "Egotistical Weekly would be glad to have him." Maggie and Mary laughed.

"Evans, you know you love me, perhaps you should just give into your feelings."

"When hell freezes over, will I love you."

"Harsh. Harsh words."

"Yep."

"You don't sound very sorry."

"I'm not."

"That'd be why then."

"Yes, yes it would."

"So, you won't go out with me then?"

"Of course not!"

"Worth a try."

"Never."

"I will prevail one day, Lily Evans."

"No you will not James Potter."  
"I will."

"You won't."

"Oh, you know so little of me, I will."

"I won't say yes. Ever."

"When you do, I will remind you of this precise moment."

"And when I say no, repeatedly, I will remind you of my warning now."

"I suppose we have a deal then."

"I will never negotiate anything with you, Potter."  
"Well, you wound me."

"I hope so."

"You don't sound like you care."

"Well, I still don't care, that's probably why."

"Of course."

"Yes, well…"

"One of these days you'll be sorry that you said all of these things to me."

"I will not."

Sirius was laughing, as was Maggie, Mary, Remus and Peter, having watched their little argument for its duration.

"Well," Remus said, "You ready for classes tomorrow?" He asked Mary.

Mary blushed as she always did when Remus spoke to her and nodded, "Yes and Hogsmeade, I've never been there before."

"Have you heard about that house near the village, there's so much screaming and howling sometimes they say it's haunted. We should go and visit it." Maggie said.

Mary shook her head vigorously, "No, I hate haunted things."

"You live in a castle full of ghosts." Maggie pointed out.

"Oh, yes, but they're lovely."

Nearly headless Nick floated by at that time, grinning, "Thank you."

Mary blushed in embarrassment. "Any time."  
Maggie put an arm around Mary's shoulder, "You're too cute for words."  
Remus looked down at his plate, not liking scary things probably means she wouldn't ever like a werewolf.

"We shouldn't go to that house." Lily said. James's eyes snapped onto her face.

"Why not?" Maggie asked in a whiny voice.

"Because, we'd have to ditch Mary to go there and on our first visit to Hogsmeade I wouldn't want to leave her, plus it's silly, I doubt it's even haunted in the slightest. Villagers just like there to be a rumour or two floating around at a time, trust me I live in one and they never stop." She said.

James nodded, "It does sound stupid." He agreed.

Mary put her fork down, "You two are agreeing on something."

Lily's lip curled, "As much as that disturbs me, yes."

Maggie raised her eyebrows but didn't argue the point farther.

They had a glorious meal, the tables laden with food, drink and desserts and by the end of the night, cleared completely as Professor Dumbledore sent them off to their beds to prepare for the following day.

Lily, Mary and Maggie got to sleep a lot later than Lily would have liked, but Lily would have liked to have been sleeping at nine if it meant she could get up for school any earlier.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Lily Evans is Surprised**

Lily Evans knew she would never, ever, not in a million years, agree to going out with James Potter. What she had not realised at the time that she had declared this was that not every girl in the class agreed with her opinion, in fact, none of them agreed with her. The girl at the top of that list was Catrin Hanson.

Catrin Hanson had never been a friend to Lily Evans or Maggie Belle, nor to Mary MacDonald, in fact Lily wasn't even remotely interested in them. She did however like one, James Potter and this spurred her actions those weeks into the term.

Lily Evans was sitting in the library, her nose in a book, a common occurrence in her past few years of schooling at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her friends were in the common room. She was quite alone; at least she wished she was by the time that what was going to happen happened.

James Potter dropped a book down and sat opposite her, "Hello, Evans." He said grinning from ear to ear as a lock of hair flopped on to his forehead.

"This is a library, Potter." She stated, "Are you lost?"

"No, I came here to read." He said matter-of-factly.

Lily scoffed, "I didn't even know that you could read."

"Well I can, I do it all of the time, you should see me in the evenings, and I'm just always reading about Merlin and magic." He said but burst into laughter as he thought of the idea, "Sorry, I couldn't keep that story up for very long no matter how it was received."

"I knew you couldn't." Lily said knowingly.

"Hey James," a voice said from behind them. Catrin appeared, her hair curling gently to the middle of her back, she was biting her lip looking at James from underneath her eyelashes.

"Hi…" he paused, obviously not able to remember her name.

"Catrin, Catrin Hanson." She offered.

James smiled a charming smile, "Of course, may I help you Catrin, Catrin Hanson?" He asked. She giggled at him flirtatiously.

"I was wondering if you would like to go out with me." She blurted, turning red immediately afterwards.

James grinned, giving Lily a look as he turned to reply to her. "OK. I'll talk to you later."

"Great," she said smiling so wide at one point she might have split her face in two. "I'll see you later." She said going off. Lily saw her return to a huddle of girls who squealed as she did and skipped out of the library, their business in the library done.

"You are insufferable." Lily said slamming the cover of her book shut and stalking out of the library.

He hadn't really wanted to go out with Catrin Hanson but it was such a unique opportunity for him that Lily Evans would be there to be made jealous.

Of course this information would be quite upsetting in the hands of the poor girl who had become a pawn in James's game for Lily's affections.

Lily didn't care, she honestly didn't, and she just found him to be so unbelievably pompous and that was the only reason she was thinking of him at all, otherwise he would never enter her thoughts.

Mary and Maggie tread carefully on that issue over the next few weeks as James and Catrin traipsed around the school, arm in arm. The one thing that Lily did notice about the whole situation was that Sirius, Peter and Remus were spending more and more time with them. Lily, Mary and Maggie that is due to the fact that Sirius liked to be stuck to James's side and he didn't like to share, as for Peter, Catrin made him uncomfortable and vice versa, Peter made her uncomfortable but Remus could just see that she wasn't very nice and that she looked down on him because of his scars, his tatty clothes, all of the things that Lily, Mary and Maggie didn't seem to care about at all because they were just material things and nothing to do with a person's character and personality.

It came to be the second Saturday that they were allowed to visit Hogsmeade, the novelty had worn off slightly after the previous visit but almost everybody turned up for it.

Lily, Mary and Maggie were wrapped up in their coats and scarves against the bitter September air. Sirius, Remus and Peter were walking a few metres behind them talking animatedly about nothing in particular.

Lily hade gotten over the initial shock of somebody liking James Potter and was in fact over everything about James Potter, she had decided if she avoided him then she wouldn't get wound up by him. As they walked into the village, little Buttons pranced at Lily's heels. Meowing when the snow almost got too uncomfortable for the little scared cat's paws, and in the end jumping into Lily's arms to prevent any further discomfort.

"Have you done the essay for Defence Against the Dark Arts?" Sirius asked sidling up beside Lily,

"Yes."

"Lily, dearest, could I see it."

"No." Lily said.

Sirius clutched at his chest and made a show of staggering about outside of the Three Broomsticks, "But Evans, Professor Boot will eat me alive, kill me."

Lily laughed, "I'll lend you my notes but you can't have my essay." She bargained.

Sirius put both thumbs up, "Deal, I'll take what I can get." He said as the six students shuffled into the bar. Lily ordered six butter beers at the bar and went to sit with them again.

"Now!" Sirius declared, "The reason I have gathered you all here." He said.

Maggie sniggered, Mary rolled her eyes and Lily said, "Sirius, you didn't gather us here, you followed us h-"

Sirius cut her off, "Enough, Evans." He said with a dramatic flare. "Catrin's gotta go."

They all erupted into laughter.

"Sirius, do you miss your boyfriend?" Maggie mocked.

"Yes." Sirius said, sticking out his bottom lip and folding his arms as he pouted.

They all laughed again.

"I just don't like her."

"Sirius, I don't think she likes you." Remus pointed out.

"Exactly, which means she just can't end up with James. I'm his best friend; whoever marries James has to know that they will _always_ come second to me!" He said his arms dramatically flailing.

Lily slipped into a fit of giggles, "You're romance is the stuff of legends."  
"Exactly." Sirius said.

Madam Rosmerta sashayed over and put their butter beers on top of the table on a tray. Sirius grinned up at her.

"Thank you, love." He said.

Rosmerta winked at him and walked away laughing. She would become fond of all of them and over their years of visiting her inn.

The conversation continued on this bizarrely ridiculous note for the rest of the afternoon until Sirius declared the need to visit Zonko's for what he called, "supplies".

More like prank supplies.

His view that something had to be done about Catrin was a valid one; she was beginning to irritate almost everyone in James's social circle. In fact even the very sweet and even tempered Mary was getting to be a little irritated.

Of course Sirius was being a little dramatic about the situation to begin with.

But Sirius Black always has a plan and when "supplies" are involved, well my dear, you better run.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Sirius Black's Ill Advised Plan**

Ill advised isn't even the term for what Sirius Black's plan entailed.

Honey, feathers, a bucket in the rafters and a possible repeat of their first year prank never added up to good things. Of course there was a slight problem with the fact that James was always the man with the know-how, Sirius was more…imaginative.

Remus was, for once, helping with the plan because of how desperately annoying Sirius was being of late because of his issue with being separated from his bestest friend in the whole wide world.

The wooden buckets had been nestled in the rafters above the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall and set by Sirius's wand. The problem was Sirius luring her into the intended spot. Well on that fateful November evening there was a chill in the air. In the Great Hall everyone was sitting and eating, chatting and laughing. The warm glow of candles hovering over the crowd of young wizards and witches warmed the atmosphere, even the teachers at the head table where Professor Dumbledore was laughing animatedly.

Lily, Maggie and Mary were directed to their seating very carefully by Sirius who didn't need another repeat of the incident in first year.

It came to James coming down the stairs being dragged by a happy looking Catrin. Sirius stood up and gave an artificial grin, "Catrin, James, over here!" He called ignoring the heads that turned from the other tables as he did so.

"Hey Sirius," James said grinning as he approached, Catrin now behind him.

"Yes, James," Sirius said, "Catrin please, sit." He said gesturing the seat beside him. Catrin's eyes narrowed in confusion and suspicion as she lowered herself into the seat beside the boy whom she'd never really gotten along with.

James looked suspicious as well, "Thanks, Sirius." He said.

The two sat down and James began piling his plate high with food. Catrin ate daintily beside him and Lily, Maggie and Mary exchanged looks, wondering why Sirius was being so nice to her and wondering what the hell he could possibly have planned.

James suspicions had died as soon as he began to eat and he wasn't expecting anything when Sirius nonchalantly took his wand out from his pocket and pointed it at the ceiling.

The honey dropped, perfectly down on to Catrin's silky brown hair, her mouth frozen in a perfect O of shock as the thick substance slid over her head, coating her hair and shoulders just as the feathers showered over her and stuck to her, floating every which way as it came down.

She screamed and all eyes in the hall gravitated to the scene unfolding in the middle of the Gryffindor table. Lily burst into unexpected laughter, along with Maggie and Mary and then suddenly the whole hall erupted into raucous laughter.

James was gaping at his newly proclaimed "girlfriend" when he was suddenly doubled over in a stitch of laughter.

Catrin looked like she could have killed somebody and by the way she leapt on to Sirius and started scratching at his face she probably would have, Lily ran over and pulled her off of him, gaining a slap in the face in the process as Remus and Peter picked up Sirius. Dumbledore and McGonagall stormed down the hall towards them.

Lily pulled her hand across the red patch on her face, she had actually been about to give Catrin some advice about how to take the honey and feathers out of her hair but the slap had revoked that privilege.

James wasn't angry at Sirius, Catrin _really_ hated Sirius and Remus and Peter were still laughing when they got back to their dorm room at nine.

Lily had been applying a dish cloth full of ice to her face up until Maggie and Mary coming back upstairs, the three of them exchanged looks and five seconds later they were rolling around laughing.

"Oh my god!" Maggie exclaimed, "For once I'm endorsing this whole pranks thing, the look on her face was absolutely priceless."

Mary just kept laughing her sweet-sounding laugh. Lily was in stitches, still holding the melting ice to her face.

"Well, anyway, I don't think I even remotely like Catrin anymore." Lily said.

"I didn't think you liked her before." Maggie commented, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Well, I didn't but now I hate her."

"Because of Ja-"

"Don't even finish that sentence!" Lily exclaimed laying the ice down on her bedside table.

Mary giggled, "Well, it's good that you're not getting defensive about it."

Lily glared at them both and then she returned to the confines of her four poster and drew the curtains around her, changing into her pyjamas, crawling under the sheets and letting sleep take her captive.

The ill advised plan ended in detention for Sirius; he denied the involvement of anyone else and as much as McGonagall would have liked to prove that James Potter was involved, there was no evidence for his conviction so Sirius Black was suffering detention alone, he deemed the whole outcome to have been worth the initial prank.

The time was speeding by, the Christmas holidays would soon be there and nothing could be done to slow the progression. There was homework and Hogsmeade visits and laughter and a lot of fun but the holidays came too soon for Lily Evans, her parents had not contacted her about Christmas, it seemed to just be a given that she would spend it at Hogwarts again, simply because of the inconvenience of her _freakiness_.

From what she had grasped of the two letters she had received since the summer holidays, Petunia had a boyfriend called Vernon, her dad had been working a lot of extra hours lately, her mum had gotten the family a puppy named Puddles and they were still ashamed of her.

The time came for those who were leaving to leave and they did so with glee, singing Christmas carols and eating candy canes. Lily sat in the Gryffindor common room eating a chocolate frog, a book propped open in her lap, Buttons purring at her side when Catrin floated through the place.

"Lily." She said coolly.

"Yes?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Talk away." Lily said, trying to sound less hostile.

"I wanted to talk with you about James." She said.

"What about him?" Lily asked her lip curling up in disgust.

"Well," Catrin paused, her face pulling into a cold expression, "Stay away from him."

"What?" Lily asked in bewilderment.

"You heard me."

"Yes, however I didn't understand you."

"Well, I know you're trying to get your claws into him and I'm making you stop."

"I'm not trying to get my claws into him, I hate him, in fact I despise him, and he's all yours."

"How kind of you however you're a very bad liar Lily and if you know what's good for you, you won't cross me again."

"Consider your point taken."

"Well then, our business is done."

"I suppose it is." Lily said, "My face was fine after you slapped me by the way." She added spitefully.

"Well, keep in mind; it won't be the next time I have to hit you."

Lily raised her eyebrows thinking, whoa this girl is crazy.

And trust me; this would not be the last we hear of one, Catrin Hanson.


End file.
